Profits of American Financial Giants Go Through the Roof
The banks Citigroup and Bank of America continued good progress in announcing first quarter profits of $4.2 billion (3 billion euro) and $2.4 billion ( 1.7 billion euro).
In the same period last year, Citigroup, the beneficiary of aid $ 45 billion (32 billion euro) from the American state, made a loss of $ 2.5 billion, while Bank of America earnings have decreased by 25% compared to the period April to June 2008.
Profit at Citigroup is based on an exceptional gain of $ 11 billion, before tax, resulting from the merger of the brokerage group, Smith Barney, with a division of Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley control 51% of mixed company.
Revenues of financial giant, which has embedded at the beginning of year the investment bank Merrill Lynch, rose by over 60% in the second quarter to 32.7 billion dollars, from 20.4 billion dollars in the same period last year.
During the first six months, the bank increased revenues by 83% to 68.53 billion dollars from 37.48 billion dollars in the first half of year and net income was placed at 5.23 billion dollars, in climbing to 23.3% from the 4.24 billion dollars recorded in the similar period of 2008.