DBRS assigns a BB (high) rating to Citigroup Inc.’s Preferred Stock; Trend Stable

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned a rating of BB (high) with a Stable trend to Citigroup Inc.’s (Citi or the Company) $1.5 billion issuance of Non-cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A. The rating is positioned four notches below Citi’s Intrinsic Assessment rating of A (low) and is consistent with DBRS’s base notching policy for preferred shares. Citi expects to use the net proceeds from the sale of the preferred stock for general corporate purposes.

Citigroup’s final issuer and debt ratings continue to receive a one notch benefit reflecting its status as a Critically Important Banking organization (CIB) in the United States. CIBs benefit from DBRS’s floor rating of “A” for bank holding companies and A (high) for operating banks with short-term ratings of R-1 (middle).

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organizations. Other methodologies used include the DBRS Criteria – Intrinsic and Support Assessments and Rating Bank Preferred Shares and Equivalent Hybrids. These methodologies can be found on the DBRS website under Methodologies.

The sources of information used for this rating include company documents, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and SNL Financial. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union.

Lead Analyst: William Schwartz
Approver: Alan G. Reid
Initial Rating Date: 24 July 2001
Most Recent Rating Update: 23 November 2011

For additional information on this rating, please refer to the linking document under Related Research.