NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 11:41 ET — Regular session
- Citigroup shares fell about 1% in late-morning trade after the bank flagged a roughly $1.2 billion pretax hit tied to its Russia exit.
- Citi said it expects to sign and close the sale of AO Citibank to Renaissance Capital in the first half of 2026, subject to approvals.
- Traders are watching Fed minutes due at 2 p.m. ET and Citi’s Jan. 14 earnings report for more detail on the quarter’s accounting impacts.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) shares were down about 1% at $116.95 in late-morning New York trading on Tuesday.
The move followed Citi’s disclosure that internal approvals have cleared the way for a planned sale of AO Citibank, which houses the bank’s remaining Russia operations. Citi said the transaction is expected to result in a roughly $1.2 billion pretax loss that it expects to book in the fourth quarter.
The timing matters because the loss will land in the same quarter banks use to set the tone for the next year on profitability and capital. Citi is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Jan. 14.
Citi said it expects to sign and close the sale in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.
The bank said most of the loss is tied to a currency translation adjustment, an accounting item that captures gains or losses from converting a foreign subsidiary’s results into U.S. dollars. Those translation effects can sit in accumulated other comprehensive income, a part of equity that does not run through net income immediately.
Citi said the cumulative impact would be capital neutral to its CET1 capital ratio, a key regulatory gauge of a bank’s loss-absorbing common equity. It added the overall divestiture is expected to benefit CET1 mainly by deconsolidating risk-weighted assets, the balance-sheet measure regulators use to scale capital requirements to the riskiness of assets.
The Russia exit has been years in the making. Citi’s plan follows Russia’s approval for Renaissance Capital to buy Citibank’s Russian operations, and comes after Citi began winding down consumer and local commercial banking in the country in 2022.
Trading conditions have been thin in the holiday-shortened week, and that can exaggerate intraday moves in large-cap financials. “I wouldn’t try to make too much out of anything that happens in a holiday-shortened week and very light trading volume,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth. Reuters
Big-bank peers were also lower, with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo each down modestly in late-morning trading.
Macro focus later Tuesday shifts to the Federal Reserve’s minutes from its Dec. 9-10 meeting, scheduled for release at 2 p.m. ET.
Banks tend to track shifts in rate expectations because they can change net interest margin — the spread between what lenders earn on loans and investments and what they pay on deposits and other funding. Investors will parse the minutes for how high the bar is for further cuts in 2026, and whether policymakers are aligned after a divided decision last meeting.
For Citi, the next test is how the Russia-related accounting charge reads through in its Jan. 14 report and whether foreign-exchange moves alter the final loss estimate. Citi said the loss is subject to change, including due to currency swings.
