【08.11美媒】美国政府同意挽救挣扎中的花旗集团

kitty

The federal government agreed Sunday night to rescue Citigroup Inc. by helping to absorb potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in losses on toxic assets on its balance sheet and injecting fresh capital into the troubled financial giant.
The agreement marks a new phase in government efforts to stabilize U.S. banks and securities firms. After injecting nearly $300 billion of capital into financial institutions, federal officials now appear to be willing to help shoulder bad assets, on a targeted basis, from specific institutions.
Associated Press


Citigroup is one of the world's best-known banking brands, with more than 200 million customer accounts in 106 countries. Its plunging stock price threatened to spook customers and imperil the bank.
If the government's rescue plan is a success, it could help bring stability to the entire financial system. If it doesn't, even deeper doubts about the industry's future could spread.
After a weekend of marathon talks between Citigroup executives and top federal officials, the parties late Sunday night nailed down a package in which the government will help protect the company from its riskiest assets.
Under the plan, Citigroup and the government have identified a pool of about $306 billion in troubled assets. Citigroup will absorb the first $29 billion in losses in that portfolio. After that, three government agencies -- the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. -- will take on any additional losses, though Citigroup could have to share a small portion of additional losses.
The plan would essentially put the government in the position of insuring a slice of Citigroup's balance sheet. That means taxpayers will be on the hook if Citigroup's massive portfolios of mortgage, credit cards, commercial real-estate and big corporate loans continue to sour.
In exchange for that protection, Citigroup will give the government warrants to buy shares in the company.
In addition, the Treasury Department also will inject $20 billion of fresh capital into Citigroup. That comes on top of the $25 billion infusion that Citigroup recently received as part of the the broader U.S. banking-industry bailout.
The government and Citigroup had hoped to unveil the plan early Sunday evening, but negotiations dragged on longer than expected. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson began briefing Congressional leaders about the plan later in the evening.
Asian markets were mostly lower in early Monday trading as news of the discussions surfaced. Japan's markets were closed for a holiday.
The sweeping rescue plan underscores how concerned the government had become about letting Citigroup's fortunes continue to deteriorate. The company has been pounded by mortgage-related losses and is on track to suffer further from the weakening economies in the U.S. and around the world.
Last week, with Wall Street rapidly losing confidence in the company, its shares tumbled 60% to a 16-year low. Still, Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and other top executives insisted last week that the company remained on solid financial footing.
Associated Press Former CEO Sanford Weill



While Citigroup's recent woes don't appear to be as severe as the problems that ultimately felled Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the U.S. government seems to have decided it can't afford to gamble on whether Citigroup will weather the storm.
At the same time, the Treasury Department is already facing a political backlash over the use of taxpayer funds to stabilize the banking sector, and has nearly exhausted the $350 billion that Congress allotted to the first phase of the industry rescue.
The planned arrangement with Citigroup appears to be an attempt to thread that needle by giving the company some breathing room until markets calm.
In addition to $2 trillion in assets Citigroup has on its balance sheet, it has another $1.23 trillion in entities that aren't reflected there. Some of those assets are tied to mortgages, and investors have worried they could cause heavy losses if they are brought back on the company's books.
Even as they assured employees and investors last week that the company was on sound financial footing, Citigroup executives and directors knew they needed to do something fast to stabilize their company. Top government officials, including the heads of the Treasury Department and the Fed, also started scrambling to draw up contingency plans in case Citigroup's troubles intensified.
The assets affected under the government plan are largely loans and securities backed by residential and commercial real estate. Such assets have been devastated by the meltdown of the housing markets and have started coming under even greater strain in recent weeks as the U.S. economy slows.
"With these transactions, the U.S. government is taking the actions necessary to strengthen the financial system and protect U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. economy," the Treasury Department, Fed and FDIC said in a joint statement issued late Sunday.
Associated Press Co-CEO John Reed and Sanford Weill welcomed ex-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to the firm's board in 1999.



Even as they assured employees and investors last week that the company was on sound financial footing, Citigroup executives and directors knew they needed to do something fast to stabilize their company. By Friday, bank officials were hoping for a public expression of confidence from the government, believing that would help reassure clients and customers.
Top government officials, including the heads of the Treasury Department and the Fed, also started scrambling to draw up contingency plans in case Citigroup's troubles intensified.
On Sunday evening, government officials were locked in meetings to hammer out the final terms of an arrangement that will leave the government deeply enmeshed in the inner workings of one of the world's largest financial institutions.
The government didn't require Citigroup to make changes to its executive ranks or its board in return for government assistance. However, Citigroup agreed to "comply with enhanced executive compensation restrictions," the government said Sunday, and also will implement a government-backed plan to modify distressed mortgages that is designed to curb foreclosures.
Reuters Former CEO Charles Prince



Despite the unprecedented scope of the rescue plan, it's not clear whether it will be enough to stabilize Citigroup. The roughly $300 billion pool of assets that are included in the rescue plan represent only a sliver of the company's more than $3 trillion in assets, including its holdings in off-balance-sheet entities.
Jitters about such "hidden" assets helped trigger the nose-dive in Citigroup's stock last week. Among the off-balance-sheet assets are $667 billion in mortgage-related securities.
Citigroup has tried repeatedly to rid itself of its exposure to those assets -- and nearly hammered out a similar arrangement with the government nearly two months ago.
In late September, the company reached an agreement for a government-financed acquisition of Wachovia Corp. Under that planned deal, Citigroup and the government were going to divvy up the losses on $312 billion of assets, with Citigroup absorbing the first $30 billion in losses and the government shouldering the remainder.
Citigroup described that arrangement as intended to insulate it from Wachovia's risky mortgage assets. But Citigroup also would have been able to unload some of its own assets, according to people familiar with the matter.
That deal unraveled in less than a week, after Wells Fargo & Co. emerged with a higher bid that didn't require direct government backing. That deprived Citigroup not only of a way to dump its risky assets but also of a deep pool of deposits, which would have substantially strengthened its access to stable low-cost funding.
Shortly after the Wachovia deal fell apart, Citigroup pitched the idea to the government of it helping to protect the company against some of its losses. Citigroup executives argued that the government should help the company after Wachovia slipped away, according to a person familiar with the matter. But federal officials balked at the idea.
As recently as one month ago, Citigroup had hoped to be able to unload some of those assets to the U.S. government through its Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to people familiar with the bank's plans. But when Treasury Secretary Paulson earlier this month shelved plans to use TARP to purchase banks' bad assets, that option vanished.
Last Monday, Mr. Pandit said in a meeting with employees that Citigroup was scrapping plans to try to sell about $80 billion in risky assets. Investors and analysts interpreted the move as a sign that Citigroup either was unable to sell the assets, or would have had to incur hefty losses in the process.
Two days later, Citigroup announced it was buying $17.4 billion in assets from its structured-investment vehicles -- complex entities whose holdings included risky mortgage-linked securities -- and faced a $1.1 billion loss due to their diminished values.
Getty Images Vikram Pandit became CEO in 2007.



The back-to-back moves, coupled with existing fears about Citigroup's massive off-balance-sheet holdings, stoked investor fears that Citigroup could be swamped by toxic assets flooding back onto its books. That helped ignite the current panic, which was exacerbated by a drumbeat of bleak economic news.
Government officials could face requests from other banks for similar help shoring up their balance sheets. Banks, hedge funds, and private equity firms have urged Capitol Hill and government officials to restart the asset-purchase program in recent weeks.
"The problem is that other banks would want to get in line" for such government support, says Thomas B. Michaud, a vice chairman of investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. "Is there enough money to do that?"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122747680752551447.html

[ 本帖最后由 妩人少将 于 2008-11-25 22:07 编辑 ]

wendy_qian

我找同事翻译了一下


美国政府同意挽救挣扎中的花旗集团


计划注入200亿资金并承诺3060亿美元接管坏帐


周日晚间美国联邦政府同意挽救花旗集团，通过帮助吸纳在花旗的资产负债表中可能的超过千万的坏帐损失，并注入资金给陷入困境的金融巨人。
这项决议象征着美国政府在稳定美国银行和证券业所采取的新一阶段行动，在注入3000亿资金后，联邦官员更显示出在为一些金融实体承担金融坏帐的决心。
花旗集团作为世界最知名的银行之一，在106个国家拥有超过2000亿客户。它的不稳定的市场价值将直接损害到银行客户的利易以及银行的发展。
如果政府的救助计划成功，将给整个金融系统带来稳定的效应，如果失败，可能会有更多的关于金融产业的忧虑将会随之发生。
经过花旗执行者和联邦官员间整整一个周末马拉松式的讨论，在周日晚间敲定了一个关于拯救花旗公司的风险资产的计划。


在这项计划中，双方确认了3006亿美元的基金（troubled asserts）， 首先花旗将用其中的290亿来偿还公司的损失，然后，三家政府机构：财政部，联邦贮备署及联邦储蓄保险公司将介入并承担一部分损失，尽管仍有一小部分损失将由花旗自行承担。
这项计划将使政府介入到花旗公司的帐务中去，也就是说，如果情况持续恶化，纳税人将要分担花旗在抵压，信用卡，金融房地产，大宗借贷等各方面的损失。 作为交换，花旗将转让部分股份给联邦政府。


此外，财政部另外注资200亿于花旗，这也是作为政府近期对于银行产业的救援资金的一部分，最多将达到250亿。
双方原定在周日晚间对外宣布此项协议，然而由于会谈的时间被延长，财务大臣henry Paulson在周日晚间稍晚时候才在国会做了简报。
由于此项讨论的公开，亚洲市场在周一早间普遍走低，日本市场关闭一天。
此项大规模的援救计划显示了政府对花旗公司持续恶化的经济状况的忧虑。花旗受次贷波及并在全球恶化的经济环境中举步为艰。
上周，由于华尔街对该公司的信心丧失，花旗公司股价遭受60％的重创，创下16年来的新低。虽然花旗公司总裁Vikram Pandit 和其他公司执行者坚持称上周花旗仍然保有稳固的财务状况。


尽管此次花旗的状况并不想当时拉曼公司和Bear Steams Cos.破产时那么严重，但是显然美国政府不愿意看到花旗重蹈此前两家公司的覆辙。
同时，财务部也承担着关于使用纳税人的钱来救市的负面压力，国会承诺的第一阶段的3500亿的资金也已经将近分配完毕。
这项计划已久的安排显然将给花旗带来难得的喘息机会以等待市场稳定的到来。
此外，另有1.23万亿美元的花旗资产并没有在其总为2万亿的资产负债表上体现出来，一些投资者认为，如果将这些和抵押相联系的资产和花旗在负债表上资产相联系起来的话，将体现出更为巨大的损失。而这些收到政府援助的资产主要为在金融风暴中遭受重大打击的以商业及居住房地产为主的贷款以及证券。预期这些资产将在美国经济进一步减缓的过程中继续走弱。


“通过这些行动，美国政府将在强化金融系统以及保护纳税人和美国经济方面采取必要的措施”财务部，FED和FDIC在周日晚间发布的联合申明中指出。
花旗公司的执行者们深知，他们必须要加速稳定他们的公司，而非简单的对员工和投资者做出保证。
包括财务部和FED的最高长官们也纷纷表示将会对花旗进行持续的援助即使花旗的财务状况进一步加剧。
周日晚间，政府官员们最终确定了这项将政府参与到世界最大的金融实体的内部事务中去的决议，政府并未要求花旗对于政府的援助做出董事会结构的改变。


虽然这项数额巨大的援助计划已经通过，花旗的前景仍然不明确，大约3000亿的援助资金也仅仅占到花旗庞大的3万亿总资产一小部分而已。
对于那些“隐藏”资产的担忧也推动了上周的花旗股价的暴跌，花旗始终致力于隐藏这些糟糕的资产的暴光，两个月前就已经和政府达成了一个相似的协议。大约在九月末，花旗与另一家政府资助公司Wachovia Corp达成一项协议。花旗和政府将分摊3120亿的资产损失，在此项协议中，花旗承担300亿，其余部分由政府负责承担。


花旗公司解释说，此安排主要为解决Wachovia公司的风险资产，但是据知情人事透露，其实花旗公司自己也可以同时摆脱了部分风险资产。
一周后此项协议便宣告瓦解，Wells Fargo.公司向花旗提供了一项更有吸引力的提议，不但不需要政府的直接支持，另一方面既能摆脱风险资产又能吸引持续的低风险低花费的资金。

Wachovia 决议瓦解后不久，花旗集团便向政府提议，政府应当保护花旗公司及其资产，据有关人员透露，政府方面回避了此项提议。
直到一个月前，花旗仍然希望政府能同过坏帐缓解程序接管一部分花旗的资产， 然而财务大臣Paulson否决了用坏帐缓解程序购买花旗坏帐的提议。
上周一， Pandit先生在一个会议上宣称花旗公司正试图出售其风险资产，投资者和分析者认为，在此项行动中，花旗将不会成功，即使成功也将蒙受巨大的损失。


两天前，花旗宣称它将通过其复杂的投资实体购入174亿资产，包括风险抵押相关的证券，并由于资产缩水构成了11亿的损失。
紧接着，随着对隐形资产的疑虑，证卷投资者们认为花旗将会由于大量坏帐的存在而深陷泥潭，这些忧虑更刺激了先前由于此前的负面新闻造成的紧张气氛。
政府官员也将进一步面对来自与其他银行，基金，私人实体提出的一系列救助请求。这些机构已经开始敦促政府重新开始考虑接管他们的资产。
“问题是其他银行也会提出同样要求”，对于这项政府援助，Thomas B.Michaud, 一家投资银行Keefe, Bruyette&Woods Inc的副主席提出“我们有足够多的钱吗？”

竹隐泉

不救不成啊，花旗这面旗如果倒了，前面投入的6000亿怕是要前功尽弃了