Citigroup may need to write down $12bn of debt and boost reserves for bad loans by $1bn as the global credit crunch deepens, a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co analyst said, reports Reuters. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, the second- and third-largest banks, may have respective Q4 write-downs of $5.5bn and $1bn, analyst Howard Mason also wrote in a Dec 31 report. The analyst also halved his forecast for a Q4 write-down at Wachovia, the fourth-largest US bank, to about $1.5bn from $3bn. Mason now expects Q4 loss of 65 cents per share at Citigroup, and quarterly profit per share of 40 cents at Bank of America, $1.00 at JPMorgan and 30 cents at Wachovia. He had previously forecast a break-even quarter for Wachovia.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with bank of america, citi, jpmorgan, wachovia. Edit this entry.