Suprise hit the banking community today as Citibank released their 2009 Q1 earnings summary.
Widely hailed by banking experts as being a likely barometer as to whether the economy is recovering, it appears the focus and widespread scrutiny of the results pushed Citi CEO Vikram Pandit too far.
The results, a 128 page summary, has had all of the decimal points removed from the document prior to issue, and furthermore (and indeed more concerning) is the removal of all minus / negative signs.
Finally, some part of key numbers appeared to have question marks typed over them.
As such, the Q1 net position for the multi-national bank can only be confirmed as beginning with a 4, and ending with a 6. Whether the total is a profit or a loss, remains a mystery.
Given the confusion around the performance, the Citi share price rose 6%.
