Pandit Says Citigroup (C) Off To Great Start For The Quarter

Citigroup (C) CEO Vikram Pandit says that the bank is having a great quarter. That must be true because he says it is, although his comments in the past have not always been spot on.

According to the FT, Pandit sent a note around to workers at the bank saying ‘We were profitable through the first two months of 2009 and are having are best quarter-to-date performance since the third quarter of 2007.”

Pandit’s enthusiasm may be masking some of the bank’s problems. There is certainly no guarantee that when it comes time to close the books on Q1 that a lot of the troubled asset on Citi’s balance sheet will not have to be written down. It may also have to account for credit card defaults and failure of some of the LBO loans that it made.

Other than that, everything is fine.

Douglas A. McIntyre