The Citi Denial

David Benoit at Deal Journal picked this up from the Citigroup ($C) corporate blog regarding the company’s “failure” of the Stress Tests:

“There has been a great deal of media coverage about the results of the Federal Reserve stress tests that were released yesterday. It is important to make clear that Citi did not ‘fail’ the stress test. As the report from the Federal Reserve makes clear, Citi has the capital to withstand the ‘severe stress scenario’ simulated by the Fed.

“Our minimum capital ratio based on that test was 5.9%, well above the 5% minimum established by the Fed. It is only after our proposed return of additional capital was factored in that the Federal Reserve calculated our minimum capital ratio to be 4.9%. Simply put, the Federal Reserve’s objection to our capital plan does not equate with ‘failing’ the stress test. As of the end of 2011, Citi had a Tier One Common ratio of 11.8% and remains one of the best capitalized banks in the world.”

That’s a lot of banker fancy talk.  If I were Citi I would sell off more chunks and then say something.

Source:

Citi Blog: We Did Not ‘Fail’ Anything (Deal Journal)