Citigroup's third-quarter earnings rose 23 per cent as gains from its consumer operations and the sale of its headquarters building outweighed its losses on corporate loans, Latin America and private-equity investments.

Mr Sandy Weill, chairman and chief executive of the bank which employs 1,100 in Dublin, also told analysts that his company was eager to resolve quickly a slew of investigations into its investment banking practices, while providing no details.

"Our goal is not to be defensive," he said. "Our goal is to settle these obligations with the regulators." Citigroup's results were complicated by the completion of a complex exercise in which it spun off its Travelers Property Casualty unit to investors. It also took charges including a $114 million (€116 million) loss on investments in its insurance portfolios.

Including one-time items, it reported $3.9 billion in income, up from $3.2 billion the previous year. Its core income, the measure Citigroup looks at internally, rose 15 per cent to $3.7 billion. Return on common equity was 19.4 per cent. In spite of what Mr Weill called a "difficult environment", Citigroup managed to increase its revenues by 10 per cent, while cutting expenses by 2 per cent.