Citi posts strong earnings despite taking $22 billion hit from tax reform

Citigroup released fourth-quarter results Tuesday, beating the expectations of Wall Street analysts with adjusted earnings of $1.28 a share.

Analysts were expecting the bank to report adjusted earnings — not including short-term impacts of tax reform — of $1.19 a share.

It's expected to be a noisy quarter for bank earnings in general, thanks in part to the tax law, which has caused many banks to book losses on repatriated cash and deferred tax assets that declined in value.

Including the impacts of the new law, Citi lost $18.3 billion for the quarter, or $7.15 a share. The bank booked a $22 billion one-time, non-cash charge of $22 billion, or $8.43 per share, on account of the new tax law.

CEO Michael Corbat nonetheless praised the tax law long-term potential for the company.

"While our fourth quarter results reflected the impact of a significant non-cash charge due to tax reform, the impact on our regulatory capital was much less significant. Tax reform does not change our capital return goals as we remain committed to returning at least $60 billion of capital in the current and next two CCAR cycles, subject to regulatory approval," Corbat said. "Tax reform not only leads to higher net income and increased returns, but also serves to strengthen our capital generation capabilities going forward."

Here are the other highlights:

Revenue of $17.3 billion, beating analyst estimates of $17.25 billion
Adjust net income of $3.7 billion
Returned $6.3 Billion of Capital to Common Shareholders in the Fourth Quarter and $17.1 Billion in Full Year 2017
Global Consumer Bank revenues increased 6% to $8.4 billion
Institutional Client Group revenues, which include the investment bank, decreased 1% to $8.1 billion, on account of a decline in markets revenues
Fixed income trading, which struggled most of the year, fell 18% to $2.4 billion
Equities trading fell 23% to $530 million, though that's distorted by "an episodic loss in derivatives of approximately $130 million, related to a single client event."
That one client is likely Steinhoff International, a South African retailer whose accounting scandal already sliced $273 million off of JPMorgan's earnings and is expected to similarly erode trading results at most of the big banks.

This story is developing.

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