IANS

New York, Apr 19:  US banking giant Citigroup on Friday announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs in the wake of a first-quarter net loss of $5.11 billion.

Company's chief financial officer Gary Crittenden announced the payroll cut plans for the bank that employs about 370,000 people around the world.

The 9,000 job cuts come atop the 4,200 job reductions, which Citigroup announced in January.

Crittenden's remarks came after the company reported its first-quarter losses, which came after Citgroup had to write down loans and bonds worth $12 billion in the ongoing sub-prime mortgage crisis.

The first-quarter red ink compares with a profit of just over $5 billion in the same 2007 period and was somewhat higher than analysts' projections, according to the Bloomberg financial agency.

The losses came on revenues of $13.2 billion. While this was down 48 percent from the first quarter of 2007, it was some $2 billion higher than projections given in a survey of analysts by Bloomberg.

Citigroup became the latest among major US financial institutions this week to report first-quarter problems in the further fallout from the mortgage crisis and US economic slump.

On Thursday, Merrill Lynch reported a net loss of $1.96 billion after nearly $7 billion in writedowns.

On Tuesday, Washington Mutural reported losing $1.1 billion in the quarter, while a day before that, Wachovia Corp. posted a loss of $350 million.

JP Morgan Chase Wednesday reported net earnings of $2.37 billion, but this figure was down about one-half from the year-earlier results.