Citigroup quarterly earnings down 86% on legal costs

Citigroup reported an 86 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings Thursday after paying $3.5 billion in legal charges and repositioning costs.
Earnings for the fourth quarter were $350 million, down from $2.5 billion a year earlier.
Like other large banks, Citigroup has faced costly government settlements and private litigation over charges that it rigged interest rates and foreign exchange trades.
Citi first announced the legal charge in December.
Citi's earnings also demonstrated weakness in its fixed income trading division, with revenues in this segment dropping 16 percent from the prior year to $2.0 billion.
Citi's global consumer banking segment reflected the impact from the higher dollar, with North American revenues advancing four percent, but revenues overseas regions dropping.
Net income from this segment rose eight percent to $1.7 billion.
Overall loans fell three percent to $645 billion from the prior year, while overall deposits were down seven percent to $899 billion.
Compared to other banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, Citigroup is more exposed to international retail banking and less leveraged to the better-performing US economy.
Citi's earnings for 2014 were down 46.5 percent from last year at $7.3 billion.
The fourth-quarter results translated into six cents per share, below the 11 cents projected by Wall Street analysts
In pre-market trade, Citi shares were down 0.1 percent at $48.99.