New York - US bank Citigroup returned to the red in the third quarter, but said it had earnings of 101 million dollars excluding one-time costs, while Goldman Sachs reported a boost in its quarterly earnings, the firms said Thursday. Citigroup has been one of the biggest losers in the global financial crisis and returned to the red after one quarter in the black, losing 3.2 billion dollars, or 27 cents per share. However, excluding costs related to converting shares in the government's 34- per-cent stake in the company, it earned 101 million dollars. It lost 2.9 billion dollars in the year-ago quarter.
The news was in sharp contrast to rival JPMorgan Chase & Co's announcement Wednesday that third- quarter profits rose almost seven- fold, to 3.59 billion dollars, far surpassing analysts' expectations.
Citigroup had to write off another 8 billion dollars in credit and was forced to add another 800 million dollars to its loan-loss reserves.
Meanwhile financial giant Goldman Sachs reported third-quarter earnings trebled to 3.19 billion dollars, or 5.25 dollars per share, from 845 million dollars, or 1.81 dollars per share. Revenue rose to 12.4 billion dollars from 6 billion dollars a year-earlier.
