シティ バッドバンク設立か

米財務省はシティに200億ドルを出資し、優先株を取得するらしい。
また、シティはバッドバンクを設立するかもしれないとのこと。
シティグループが会社分割し、「バッドバンク」を新規に設立する構想が
浮上した。含み損を抱えた住宅ローンなどの不良資産を「バッドバンク」に
分離する構想で、シティが世界で展開する預金を保護するのが狙い。

シティは資本注入を受け、人員を削減を発表したが株価が急落。
シティは身売りも噂されている。

米国は相変わらず格付け会社の判断を基準にしている。
サブプライムで甘い評価にスポンサーびいきの基準を露呈した格付け機関を
未だに信じている。進歩しないようだ。


---米財務省がシティへの1.9兆円の出資発表、優先株取得へ---
2008年 11月 24日 14:39 JST
http://jp.reuters.com/article/topNews/idJPJAPAN-35062520081124

　［ワシントン　２３日　ロイター］　米財務省は２３日遅く、米金融大手シティグループ(C.N: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)支援策の一環として、同社に２００億ドル（約１兆９０００万円）を出資し、優先株を取得する方針を明らかにした。
　シティグループの支援策をめぐる週末の協議後、明らかにした。
　発表によると、同省と米連邦預金保険公社（ＦＤＩＣ）は、シティのバランスシート上のローンおよび証券約３０６０億ドル相当を保証する方針。
　同省はまた、米連邦準備理事会（ＦＲＢ）が、この資産プールの追加リスクについて、ノンリコースローンの提供を通じて保証する用意があるとしている。


---米シティ、不良資産の分離構想浮上　米紙報道---
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20081124AT2N2301U24112008.html

　【ニューヨーク＝松浦肇】米大手銀シティグループが会社分割し、不良資産の受け皿となる「バッドバンク」を新規に設立する構想が浮上している。米ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル（電子版）など米メディアが23日夜、一斉に報じた。含み損を抱えた住宅ローンなどの不良資産を「バッドバンク」に分離する構想で、シティが世界で展開する預金を保護するのが狙い。「バッドバンク」に移管された不良資産から発生する損失はシティが当初かぶるが、損失額が一定以上に達した場合は米政府が引き受ける方向で協議が進んでいるもようだ。
　シティは米政府から250億ドルの資本注入を受け、17日に従業員の15％の人員を削減するリストラを発表したが株価が急落。自力で資本増強することが難しくなっていた。米政府は世界で100カ国以上に展開するシティの経営不安が長期化することで、金融システム・リスクに悪影響を与えると見ており、シティと経営再建策について協議を進めている。 (08:58)


---シティ　資本注入受け入れか　ＧＭは更生手続き申請も---
2008/11/24
http://www.business-i.jp/news/bb-page/news/200811240027a.nwc

　米資産運用会社ホーランドの創業者、マイケル・ホーランド会長は、株価急落に見舞われている米銀大手シティグループや自動車大手ＧＭ（ゼネラル・モーターズ）が、「『トゥー・ビッグ・トゥー・フェイル』（規模が大き過ぎてつぶせない）の対象であることに疑問の余地はない」と指摘。「現政権と次期政権は、こうした対象を救うためにあらゆる措置を取る決意を固めている」との見方を示している。
　実際、米紙ウォールストリート・ジャーナルは２３日までに、シティグループが政府当局者との協議を開始したと報じた。事情に詳しい匿名の関係者の話として伝えた。
　同紙によると、資産売却や身売り、経営陣の交代のほか、新たな資本注入といった選択肢が協議されている。投資家やアナリストも同様にシティグループが米政府の救済を受ける可能性が高いとみている。
　シティの資産規模は２兆ドル（約１９１兆３４００円）超と、ＡＩＧ（アメリカン・インターナショナル・グループ）など、これまで米政府の救済を受けた企業を大幅に上回っている。
　ポールソン財務長官とバーナンキＦＲＢ（米連邦準備制度理事会）議長は、９月のリーマン・ブラザーズ破綻（はたん）に続く混乱を避けるため、救済の道を選択する可能性が高い。

≪「分割計画はない」≫
　シティの経営陣が同行には金融危機を乗り切るのに十分な資本と流動性があると説明している半面、株価の急落は債権者や顧客、格付け会社の信頼感を底から揺さぶる恐れがある。リーマン・ブラザーズのファルドＣＥＯ（最高経営責任者）は破綻の５日前の段階でも、同社の経営は「適正な軌道上」にあるとの認識を示していた。
　元リーマンのアナリストで、現在はバークレイズ・キャピタルに在籍しているジェーソン・ゴールドバーグ氏は、２１日付の顧客向けリポートで、シティの株価動向について「当局による何らかの介入があることを暗示しているのかもしれない」と説明。「過去に政府介入があった例では、株主はあまり恩恵を受けてこなかった」と指摘した。
　ただ、シティのビクラム・パンディットＣＥＯは２１日に世界の従業員に向けた電話会議で、会社分割の計画はないと言明。株価が急落するなか、社員の動揺の沈静化に努めた。しかし、この日の終値は、前日比２０％安の３．７７ドルだった。
　パンディット氏は同日の電話会議で、証券部門スミス・バーニーの売却や会社分割の計画はないとも述べていた。米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズは、シティ幹部は身売りや分割を積極的に検討してはいないと報じている。

≪議会では否定も…≫
　また、ＧＭについて、ウォールストリート・ジャーナルはＧＭの取締役会の一部メンバーが、連邦破産法１１条に基づく会社更生手続きの適用申請の受け入れも辞さない構えを示していると報じた。事情に詳しい複数の関係者の話を基に伝えた。ＧＭのリック・ワゴナーＣＥＯは、議会での証言で、会社更生手続きは選択肢ではないと述べている。（Ｃｈｒｉｓｔｉｎｅ　Ｈａｒｐｅｒ、Ｊｅｒａｎ　Ｗｉｔｔｅｎｓｔｅｉｎ）


---世界の金融業「３５万人失業」　ＣＴパートナーズＣＥＯ見通し---
2008/11/24
http://www.business-i.jp/news/bb-page/news/200811240024a.nwc

　米人材斡旋（あっせん）会社ＣＴパートナーズのサリバンＣＥＯ（最高経営責任者）は、金融サービス業界の大量解雇が今後数カ月間に加速し、２００９年半ばまでに人員削減数は全世界で約３５万人に達するとの見通しを示した。削減規模は金融危機以前の業界人員の２０％に相当するという。
　ＣＴパートナーズは、エグゼクティブを対象としたヘッドハンティングで世界６位、米シティグループや米ＪＰモルガン・チェースなどを顧客にしている。
　今回の金融危機以降、銀行や証券会社、投資ファンドなどの削減人員は、これまでに世界中で約１７万人に達している。
　サリバンＣＥＯは「金融版の第二次世界大戦だ。未曾有の変化が金融人口に起きている」と述べた。金融機関は投資収益を伸ばすためのレバレッジ（高リスク・高リターン）を活用する能力を失っており、「世界恐慌以降最悪の金融危機で投資銀行業界の姿が変わる。１９６０～７０年代の投資銀行に戻ることになる」と語った。
　シティのパンディットＣＥＯは、赤字急増により、今後１年間で従業員５万２０００人を削減すると発表している。
　米証券大手リーマン・ブラザーズ・ホールディングスの破綻（はたん）後、米ゴールドマン・サックス・グループと米モルガン・スタンレーはＦＲＢ（米連邦準備制度理事会）が管轄する銀行持ち株会社に移行した。
　サリバンＣＥＯは「金融機関のリスクを取る能力が抑制され、収益性が低下するだろう」と予測する。
　ＣＴパートナーズは金融専門家の需要が枯渇しているため、金融業界から医薬品やクリーンエネルギー業界にヘッドハンティングの軸足を移す意向という。（Ｐｈｉｌｉｐ　Ｌａｇｅｒｋｒａｎｓｅｒ）


---Citigroup, Fed Said to Weigh Plan to Limit Losses (Update1)---
Last Updated: November 23, 2008 18:17 EST
By Bradley Keoun and Alison Vekshin
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=a_rp_i7EWcH8&refer=home

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. and U.S. regulators are in talks to limit the bank’s potential losses on more than $100 billion of toxic assets after the stock’s plunge last week sparked concerns about the company’s fate, four people familiar with the matter said.

The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department were locked in discussions with Citigroup and other regulators throughout the weekend and a deal may be reached as soon as today, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. The assets would remain at Citigroup, with the government agreeing to assume losses beyond a specified amount, two of the people said.

The holdings that may be guaranteed are a portion of the $400 billion pile of mortgages, bonds, auto loans and corporate loans that Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit pledged in May to shed within three years, the two people said. While the amount to be covered under the plan is under discussion, the talks are focused on about $100 billion to $200 billion of the assets, they said.

“If anybody’s too big to fail from the financial system’s point of view, it’s Citi,’” said Brian Barish, president of Cambiar Investments LLC in Denver, which manages about $6 billion and doesn’t own Citigroup stock. “The government doesn’t need to be in this to make money. If they lose a few bucks on this, but save the system, it’ll be worth it.”

Share Decline
Citigroup lost 60 percent of its market value last week as investor confidence in the New York-based company’s prospects faltered after four consecutive quarterly losses. Unless the bank takes steps to halt the slide, the share-decline may rattle Citigroup’s customers, counterparties and employees, threatening the operations of the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, according to a report by David Hendler, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in New York.

“We sense that Citi’s board will also recognize the difficult chain of events which can be brought about by its low stock price, and prefer to take action in the next few days or weeks,” Hendler wrote in the report yesterday.

Federal Reserve Board spokeswoman Michelle Smith and Citigroup spokesman Michael Hanretta declined to comment today. Citigroup Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden and Chief Risk Officer Brian Leach are leading the negotiations for the bank, one person familiar with the matter said.

Pandit, 51, told employees on a Nov. 21 conference call that he doesn’t plan to break up the company. He and Crittenden said they don’t expect to sell the Smith Barney brokerage unit, two people who listened to the call said at the time.

Intervention
Citigroup’s board, led by Chairman Win Bischoff and independent director Richard Parsons, met the same day to discuss the bank’s options.

Citigroup issued a statement last week saying the company has “a very strong capital and liquidity position and a unique global franchise.”

The proposal under consideration is a variation on a theme that has played out in government interventions during the past year, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s purchase of Bear Stearns Cos., Citigroup’s failed effort to buy Wachovia Corp. and the Swiss government’s rescue financing of UBS AG. In each case, the government required the bank to absorb initial losses and agreed to guarantee deficits beyond that amount.

JPMorgan took the first $1.15 billion of losses on a $30 billion portfolio of Bear Stearns’ devalued assets, with the Federal Reserve agreeing to finance the rest.

Wachovia, UBS
In September, Citigroup agreed to suffer the first $42 billion of losses on Wachovia’s loan porfolio, with the FDIC taking the rest, in a deal that was canceled after Wells Fargo & Co. stepped in to buy Wachovia.

The Swiss government required UBS in October to inject 6 billion Swiss francs ($4.91 billion) into a special purpose vehicle backed with $54 billion of central bank loans to allow the bank to carve off about $60 billion of assets.

To help shore up Citigroup, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. could provide loan-loss support or the U.S. Treasury could contribute money from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed by Congress in October, Hendler’s report said.

“The FDIC does not comment on open and operating institutions,” Andrew Gray, a spokesman for the agency, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Citigroup’s debt remains on review for downgrade by both Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s. Moody’s rates Citigroup’s senior unsecured debt Aa3, while S&P has an AA- rating. A downgrade to A1 by Moody’s or to A+ by S&P is possible as the bank’s falling stock price could be deemed to hamper the company’s “financial flexibility,” the report said.

A single-A rating at the parent-company level should be manageable as long as the company’s banking subsidiaries maintain double-A ratings, CreditSights said. JPMorgan, now the biggest U.S. bank by assets, managed to endure with single-A ratings earlier in the decade, the report notes.


---Citigroup, U.S. in Talks to Create 'Bad Bank' ---
NOVEMBER 23, 2008, 5:11 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122747680752551447.html?mod=special_page_campaign2008_mostpop

Citigroup Inc. is nearing agreement with U.S. government officials to create a structure that would house some of the financial giant's risky assets, according to people familiar with the situation.

While the discussions remain fluid and might not result in an agreement, talks were progressing Sunday toward creation of what would essentially be a "bad bank." That structure would help Citigroup cleanse its balance sheet of billions of dollars in potentially toxic assets, these people said.

The bad bank also might absorb assets from Citigroup's off-balance-sheet entities, which hold $1.23 trillion. Some of those assets are tied to mortgages, and investors have worried such assets could cause heavy losses if they land on the company's balance sheet. Citigroup also has about $2 trillion in loans, securities and other assets on its balance sheet as of Sept. 30.

Behind the push is a broad effort to shore up faith in the New York company, which saw its stock price tumble by 60% last week to a 16-year low.

Under the terms being discussed, Citigroup would agree to absorb losses on assets covered by the agreement up to a certain threshold. The federal government would cover losses beyond that level, people familiar with the matter said. One person said the new entity is expected to hold about $50 billion of assets.

A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment on the discussions.

It is unclear whether the U.S. government will take an equity stake in Citigroup in return for providing a financial backstop. Also uncertain is if Citigroup would get a government loan to finance the facility. The government took that approach with insurer American International Group Inc. in late September.

It wasn't known Sunday afternoon if Citigroup will have to make changes to its executive ranks, board or elsewhere inside the company in return for getting government assistance.

After weekend discussions between Citigroup executives and officials at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department, the parties are hoping to unveil an agreement Sunday evening, the people said.

As Citigroup shares fell last week, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and other top executives insisted that the plunge wasn't a threat because the company has plenty of capital and liquidity. But by Friday, bank officials were hoping for a public expression of confidence by the government, believing that would help reassure clients and customers.

One rescue structure under consideration would resemble part of the $150 billion bailout plan that the government struck with AIG in November as part of a restructuring of the previous bailout. Two vehicles, funded largely by as much as $52.5 billion in government money, were created to take on risks from some of AIG's souring assets, including exposure to credit derivatives.

That deal also reduced interest costs on AIG's $60 billion loan from the government.


---Plan to Rescue Citigroup Begins to Emerge---
By ERIC DASH and GRETCHEN MORGENSON
Published: November 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/business/24citibank.html?em

Federal regulators were considering a new rescue for Citigroup on Sunday, a step that could mark a third leg of the government’s broader efforts to bolster the nation’s financial industry, according to people briefed on the plan.

Under the proposal, the government would shoulder losses at Citigroup if those losses exceeded certain levels, according to these people, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because the plan was still under discussion.

If the government should have to take on the bigger losses, it would receive a stake in Citigroup. The banking giant has been brought to its knees by gaping losses on mortgage-related investments.

If approved, the plan could serve as a model for other banks, heralding another shift in the government’s morphing financial rescue. The Treasury Department initially proposed buying troubled assets from banks but then reversed course and began injecting capital directly into financial institutions.

The plan for Citigroup was still under discussion on Sunday afternoon, and it was unclear exactly how the arrangement might work. One question is how Citigroup and the government would determine the level of losses that the bank itself must bear before the government steps in. Another is whether any additional government money for Citigroup, which has already received $25 billion under the initial rescue plan, would come from the $700 billion industry bailout that Congress approved in October or from other sources, like the Federal Reserve or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Regulators were debating various terms of the arrangement on Sunday, including whether the government would receive preferred stock or warrants, which are instruments that give holders the right to buy stock. Preferred stock would be more beneficial to taxpayers because Citigroup would pay dividends on those shares; warrants would be more attractive to Citigroup’s existing shareholders, since they would not immediately dilute the value of their investments as much as preferred stock.

Once the nation’s largest and mightiest financial company, Citigroup lost half its value in the stock market last week as the bank confronted a crisis of confidence. Although Citigroup executives maintain the bank is sound, investors worry that its finances are deteriorating. Citigroup has suffered staggering losses for a year now, and few analysts think the pain is over. Many investors worry that the bank needs additional capital.

With more than $2 trillion in assets and operations in more than 100 countries, Citigroup is so large and interconnected that its troubles could spill over into other institutions. Indeed, Citigroup is widely viewed, both in Washington and on Wall Street, as too big to be allowed to fail.

Even so, federal regulators want to restore confidence in the company without being seen as bailing out its shareholders.

Citigroup executives reached out to Federal Reserve and Treasury last week as they sought to stabilize the company’s stock, which has plunged 87 percent this year.

The plan under discussion is reminiscent of the one that Citigroup and the F.D.I.C. worked out in October to smooth Citigroup’s proposal to buy the Wachovia Corporation. That deal fell through, however, when Wells Fargo swept in with a higher offer.

Under that plan, the Citigroup agreed to bear a certain level of Wachovia’s losses, with the F.D.I.C. absorbing the rest. In exchange, Citigroup agreed to pay the F.D.I.C. in preferred stock.

It is also similar to an effort orchestrated by Swiss financial regulators for UBS, another big global bank. Last month, the Swiss central bank and UBS reached an agreement to transfer as much as $60 billion of troubled securities and other assets from UBS’s balance sheet to a separate entity. UBS’s shareholders are scheduled to vote this week on the plan, which would involve the bank putting up $6 billion in equity. The Swiss central bank would control the new entity and loan it $54 billion.