Citigroup has today reported a 7% rise in quarterly profit, wrapping up a strong quarter for big US banks, as trading in bonds and currencies surged following Donald Trump's surprise victory in November.
"We had a strong finish to 2016, bringing momentum into this year," the bank's chief executive Michael Corbat said in a statement.
"We drove revenue growth in our businesses and demonstrated strong expense discipline across the firm," he added.
Citi's said its net income rose to $3.57 billion, or $1.14 per share, in the quarter ended December 31, from $3.34 billion, or $1.02 per share, a year earlier.
This topped the average analyst estimate of $1.12 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Citigroup's revenue from fixed-income trading rose about 36%, while equity trading revenue rose about 15%, pushing up total markets and securities services revenue by about 24% compared with the same quarter last year.
However, adjusted revenue fell 9% to $17.01 billion due to divestitures and missed the average estimate of $17.30 billion.
Citigroup's shares have gained about 17% since the US election.
In the wake of the presidential election, Wall Street trading desks benefited from higher volume and volatility in stocks, bonds and currencies.
Goldman Sachs Group reported a jump of about 78% in revenue from trading fixed-income securities, currencies and commodities earlier today.
JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank by assets, and Morgan Stanley also reported sharp increases in fourth-quarter fixed-income trading revenue.
Adjusted revenue from Citicorp, Citigroup's ongoing businesses, rose 6% to $16.36 billion in the three month period. Citicorp's expenses fell 2% to $9.46 billion.
Shares of US banks have staged a dramatic rally following Trump's victory as investors expect banks to reap huge benefits from lighter regulation under his presidency.
However, bank shares fell yesterday as concerns about protectionist trade policies planned by US President-elect Trump weighed on the wider market.
The US Federal Reserve, which raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points in December, is expected to raise them again three times this year. That should help banks.
Citigroup said today that adjusted return on tangible common equity, a key measure of profitability, was unchanged at 7.1%.
Its CEO Corbat had set a target of reaching a 10% return on equity by 2015 shortly after taking the reins in 2012.
The bank said its total operating expenses fell 9% to $10.12 billion.
Citigroup has more assets in emerging markets than other US banks. Since the financial crisis, it has been exiting less profitable operations in markets around the world, as it works to return capital to investors.
It said it had returned nearly $11 billion in capital to shareholders last year.
