In one of the biggest rescue acts in the world's banking history, Citigroup on Monday said that it would get a $40-billion capital infusion as part of a pact reached with the US Government's Treasury Department -- the central bank Federal Reserve and Federal Depository Insurance Corp, the government agency that is often appointed as receiver for failed banks.
As part of the pact, the government would also guarantee Citigroup's toxic or risky assets worth $306 billion, which are in the form of securities, loans and commitments backed by residential and commercial real estate and other assets.
Pandit stays at Citi, at least for now
While 'hundreds of billion dollars' has become an oft-repeated figures in the US in the wake of the current crisis, most of them are still untouched levels on most of the parameters for Indian banks.
For instance, all the Indian banks taken together have a current market capitalisation as well as full-year revenue of a little over $50 billion each.
Even the total assets of all the Indian banks, at about $580 billion, is estimated to be less than double the size of NRI Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup's toxic assets.
If we consider only private banks in the country, their total assets, at about $150 billion, are only half the size of risky assets with Citi.
Besides, the total full-year net profit of all the Indian banks together, at about $6.5 billion, is just about two per cent of the toxic assets lying with Citi.
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