The banking group issued Q1 results, noting that private bank revenues rose.

Citigroup has logged $3.5 billion in net income for the first quarter of 2016, on revenues of $17.6 billion.

This compares to net income of $4.8 billion and revenues of $19.7 billion a year ago, the bank said late last week, as more US banks began to issue quarterly figures to kick off the results season.

Citi attributed the year-on-year dip in profit to lower revenues and a higher cost of credit, partially offset by lower operating expenses. The decline in revenues was driven by a 6 per cent decrease in Citicorp revenues and a 29 per cent decrease in Citi Holdings, it said.

Private bank revenues rose 5 per cent to $746 million, primarily driven by higher loan and deposit balances.

“While our market-sensitive products clearly suffered from weak investor sentiment during the quarter, we continued to make progress in several key areas,” said Michael Corbat, chief executive at Citi.

“We grew loans and deposits in our core businesses, reduced our expenses while absorbing a significant repositioning charge, utilized additional deferred tax assets, and generated capital in excess of what we returned to our shareholders,” Corbat said.