Citigroup Q4 Earnings & My Review For Future Deposit Rate Insights

From AP via LA Times

Citigroup's loan portfolio improved late last year, partly because Americans were better about paying down credit card debt. But choppy financial markets hurt its investment banking profits, and the bank missed Wall Street expectations.

Based on the table on page 10 of Citi's Financial Supplement, average deposits in Citi's North American Regional Consumer Banking division grew 1.10% for Q4 and 1.73% for the year. Average loans grew 5.97% for Q4 and 25.59% for the year. However, it should be noted that average loans totaled $37.3 billion at the end of Q4 while average deposits totaled $147.0 billion. So credit cards and mortgage servicing may have a larger impact. The loan-deposit ratio is probably not too useful. Nevertheless, it should be noted that deposits growth occured both for the year and Q4, and a large part of that growh was in Q4. That's not helpful for deposit rates.