Citi's Good News: A Cautionary Note
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By Mara Der Hovanesian
In the ‘hold on there a minute’ department: Citigroup’s (C) lower-than-expected loss in the first quarter offered a glimmer of hope for the bank and the banking industry, but let’s not ignore that Citi avoided taking some $600 million in revenue hits due to a nifty little change in accounting rules that relate to securities impairments. It will also have to drum up a bunch more capital as a direct result of the government’s stress tests.