Pre-tax profits at Citibank's Irish based European unit last year more than halved to $475.69m due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Limerick woman Cecilia Ronan was appointed as chief executive of Citibank Europe PLC in February 2020.
New accounts show that pre-tax profits declined by 64% after total income decreased by 10.4% from $2.47bn to $2.2bn in the 12 months to the end of December last.
The business employs 10,238 including around 2,500 employed here.
The directors stated that "the company’s businesses, operations and financial condition have been impacted by economic dis-locations and trends caused by the pandemic".
The directors said that despite these impacts, the business reported a post tax profit of $443m for 2020 "and has maintained strong capital and liquidity positions with consistently strong business operations".
The business is headquartered in Dublin and has branches across 21 European countries.
The directors said that the consideration to pay dividends in relation to 2020 earnings will be kept under review in 2021 in light of uncertainties created by Covid-19 and Regulators’ recommendations and will be finalised later in the year.
No dividend was paid in 2020 on 2019 earnings.
The company’s total assets increased by $12.6bn to $74bn at year end.
The directors state that the growth was led by the Markets and Securities Services businesses due to the successful Brexit led transitions and portfolio build up in derivatives flow trading as well as increased financing seen across financial institutions and corporate customers.
The bank recorded post tax profits of $443m after paying corporation tax of $32.59m.
Numbers employed by the group last year increased from 9,446 to 10,238 and staff costs increased by 7.6 per cent from $744.28m to $801.5m.
Salary costs totaled $640m while social security costs came to $119.9m.
Pension and post retirement benefits amounted to $16.27m.
The staff costs included restructuring costs of $9.6m along with shared based payments of $15.5m.
Directors' pay declined by 38.5% from $5.4m to $3.3m after no payment was made under 'long term incentive schemes’ for 2020 and this followed a payout under that heading of $1.6m in 2019.
The accounts further show that 10 members of key management personnel shared remuneration of $11.76m made up of salaries of $11.2m and post employment benefits of $567,000.
The directors stated that the business has a well balanced model that places it in a strong position to face current uncertainties facing it and to benefit from opportunities for future growth.
They said that "once the market condition improves and recovery takes hold, the volumes in payments and commercial card business are expected to bounce back".
The directors said that the company "has seen a significant increase in transactional volumes and associated revenues in the Securities Services business and this is expected to continue through client acquisition and geographic expansion".
Citibank Europe’s total assets of $74.7bn at the end of December last included $19.9bn in cash.
The bank’s 2020 revenues comprised of net interest income of $390.61m; net fee and commission income of $969.6m; net trading income of $255.6m; net investment income of $82.6m and other operating income of $502m.
The directors state that the reduction in net operating income to $1.7bn was due to a decrease in transaction volumes through the payment and commercial cards business mirroring the wider contraction in the global economy.
They state that this was coupled with reduced interest income from compressed rates across the US and Europe.
The bank’s shareholder funds amounted to $10.7bn that included accumulated profits which totaled $7.9bn.
