Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) posted stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, driven by a strong performance in its trading business and higher net interest income.
The bank reported earnings per share of $1.96, handily beating Wall Street estimates of $1.60, while revenue rose 8% year-over-year to $21.67 billion, above the $21 billion analysts had expected.
Net interest income surged 12% to $15.18 billion, fueled in part by outperformance in fixed income and equities trading.
“We reported another very good quarter and continue to demonstrate that our strong results are sustainable through different environments,” CEO Jane Fraser said. “Markets had its best second quarter performance since 2020 with a record second quarter for equities.”
Citigroup’s fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) trading revenue rose to $4.27 billion, beating expectations of $3.92 billion, while equities trading brought in $1.61 billion, topping forecasts of $1.55 billion. Investment banking revenues climbed 18%, supported by a rebound in advisory and equity capital markets activity.
US personal banking revenue, however, slipped slightly below expectations at $5.12 billion compared with a forecast of $5.26 billion.
The bank raised its full-year adjusted revenue guidance to approximately $84 billion, at the higher end of its previous range, and maintained expense expectations of $53.4 billion.
Analysts at UBS said the quarter marked one of Citigroup’s strongest results in recent memory.
UBS also expects investors to focus on future buyback activity, after Citigroup returned around $2 billion to shareholders in the quarter. Analysts estimate the bank could return $3–4 billion per quarter in the second half of 2025.
Shares of Citigroup were up around 1.6% on Tuesday following the results.