The US bank saw issuance falling by 18% in the last quarter of 2021.

Citigroup recorded a 29.5% increase in its US structured product sales volumes during the fourth quarter of 2021 from the same period of 2020. Total sales stood at US$3.1 billion over 924 products compared with US$2.4 billion across 684 products, SRP data shows.

Citi currently ranks as the second most dominant issuer group for Q4 21 in terms of sales volumes behind Morgan Stanley, which leads with US$3.4 billion over 857 products. The bank slid from first place during the previous quarter in which it issued US$3.4 billion in sales across 1,051 products.

The bank issued a total of 3,868 structured products during 2021 worth US$12.6 billion. About US$5.3 billion in sales fell under equity index baskets, US$2.4 billion were attributed to single equity indexes, US$2 billion fell under exchange-traded funds (ETF), and US$1.1 billion belonged to single equity shares.

Popular underlyings for the year on Citi’s products included the Eurostoxx 50 (215 products/US$1 billion), Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF (97 products/US$547m), Apple (148 products/US$461m), Amazon (US$137 products/US$445m), and Citi’s Dynamic Asset Selector 5 ER Index (132 products/US$236m).

The most popular payoff featuring in Citi’s issuance during 2021 was the reverse convertible with US$8.2 billion sales across 2,315 products. Other payoffs include worst of option (2,487 products/US$2.5 billion), callable (1,374 products/US$4.7 billion) and knock out (1,372 products/US$4.6 billion).

The majority of Citi’s structured product issuance was wrapped as notes worth US$12.4 billion while US$133m accounted for market-linked certificates of deposits (MLCDs).

Outside the US, the bank issued just under 84,000 listed turbo certificates in the quarter, which were targeted at investors in Germany (70,353 products), France (10,772), the Netherlands (2,369), Finland (287), and Portugal (186). A further 84 structured products were issued on the primary markets in France (39), Italy (27), UK (14), and Germany (four).

Business lines

For the final quarter of 2021, Citigroup reported a net income of US$3.2 billion, or US$1.46 per diluted share, on revenues of US$17.0 billion. This compared to net income of US$4.3 billion, or US$1.92 per diluted share, on revenues of US$16.8 billion for the same period in 2020.

Revenues also increased by one percent from the prior-year period, primarily driven by strong growth in investment banking in the institutional client’s group and higher revenues in corporate/other, partially offset by lower revenues across regions in global consumer banking.

The bank reported a net income of US$3.2 billion, a decrease of 26% compared to the previous year, reflecting higher expenses, partially offset by higher revenues and lower cost of credit.

For the full year of 2021, Citigroup reported net income of US$22 billion on revenues of US$71.9 billion, compared to a net income of US$11.0 billion on revenues of US$75.5 billion for the full year 2020.

Total risk-weighted assets (RWAs) totalled US$1.2 trillion during the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with US$1.3 trillion in the previous quarter as well as the final quarter of 2020.

‘We had a decent end to 2021 driving net income for the year up to US$22 billion in what was a far better credit environment than the previous year,’ said chief executive officer Jane Fraser (pictured).

Citi returned nearly US$12 billion of capital to shareholders and tangible book value increased seven percent during the year.

Click to view the bank’s earnings release.