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Citigroup to Bail Out Struggling $49B SIVs

Citigroup reverses course; Moody's downgrades its credit rating

By Jim O'Neill,  Newser User

Posted Dec 14, 2007 7:20 AM CST

(Newser) – Citigroup will take over seven subprime-plagued investment funds, with $49 billion in assets, and provide emergency support if necessary, to keep them solvent, the Wall Street Journal reports. The decision yesterday to bail out its affiliated SIVs—structured-investment vehicles—is a reversal of Citi's earlier decision to keep them off its balance sheet, and it led Moody’s to downgrade Citi’s credit rating.

The move, which came just two days after new CEO Vikram Pandit took over, likely spells the end of an industry effort, backed by the Treasury Department, to create an SIV rescue fund. Citigroup and several other banks decided they couldn’t wait for the slow-moving plan to develop.

A Citibank office is shown on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 in New York. Wall Street rebounded Tuesday after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority said it will invest US$7.5 billion in Citigroup Inc., a vote of confidence for the nation's largest bank, which has suffered severe losses amid the ongoing...
A Citibank office is shown on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 in New York. Wall Street rebounded Tuesday after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority said it will invest US$7.5 billion in Citigroup Inc., a vote of...   (Associated Press)
Citigroup Inc. provided this file photo Vikram Pandit.  The ascension of Indian-born leaders like Pandit, the new CEO of Citigroup Inc., tracks the economic rise of their home country, once seen by U.S. business as a large market or a source of low-cost technology workers, now viewed as a...
Citigroup Inc. provided this file photo Vikram Pandit. The ascension of Indian-born leaders like Pandit, the new CEO of Citigroup Inc., tracks the economic rise of their home country, once seen by U.S....   (Associated Press)
A Citibank sign is shown on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 in New York. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will invest $7.5 billion in Citigroup, offering the nation's largest bank needed capital to offset big losses from mortgages and other investments.  (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
A Citibank sign is shown on Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007 in New York. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will invest $7.5 billion in Citigroup, offering the nation's largest bank needed capital to offset big...   (Associated Press)
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