[R]9:30AM New York - Citigroup Inc. reports fourth quarter record loss, cuts dividend by 41%.[/R]

Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. bank, has reported fourth quarter net loss of $9.83 billion down from a profit of $5.1 billion reported in the year ago quarter, as the bank took the heaviest punch yet from the subprime mortgage crisis.

The loss emanated from an $18.1 billion exposure to bad mortgage debt and a $4.1 billion increase in domestic credit costs.

New chief executive, Vikram Pandit declared the loss was ""clearly unacceptable"". He pledged to turn around the company''s fortunes.

Citigroup, although not alone in the bad debt heat, its write-off is by far the biggest announced by any bank to date. It is the biggest in nearly two centuries of bank operations in the U.S.

During the quarter to December 31, 2007, the bank reported a loss of $1.99 per share from a profit of $1.03 per share a year earlier.

The results were worse than expectations. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial estimated a loss of $1.03 on revenues of $10.64 billion.

For the quarter revenues crashed 70% to $7.2 billion dragged by sub-prime mortgage market write-downs.

Citigroup slashed its dividend payout by 41% to 32 cents per share from 54 cents per share and helped save $4.4 billion of its depleted capital reserves. The group’s last dividend cut was in 1991.

The company may cut up to 24,000 jobs, it announced, as part of its restructuring forced by the recent market turmoil. It last cut jobs in April, when it announced it would lay off of 17,000 workers.

Now the Citigroup is hoping to gain a cash injection of $6.8 billion from the Singapore government investment agency GIC.

This follows a similar $7.5 billion investment in Citigroup from another government agency, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, in November 2007.

In the quarter, Citigroup said U.S. consumer revenues grew 6%, driven by higher business volumes with average deposits and managed loans, both up 10%.

International consumer revenues increased 45%, driven by the impact of recent acquisitions, a $507 million pre-tax gain on Visa Inc. shares, and a $313 million pre-tax gain on the sale of an ownership interest in Nikko Cordial''s Simplex Investment Advisors.

Average deposits and loans increased 21% and 30%, respectively, and investment sales were up 24%

For fiscal 2007, net earnings declined 83% to $3.6 billion or 72 cents per share, as net revenues fell 9% to $81.7 billion from $89.6 billion posted in 2006.

International consumer revenues rose 28% to $25.3 billion while U.S consumer revenues were fractionally up 4% to $31.7 billion.

Pandit said that the U.S. consumer is feeling the pain of the subprime crisis and the weakening U.S. economy and that it''s boosted reserves to cover rising delinquencies and defaults on everything from credit cards to car loans.

""We had losses in our U.S. consumer business, up over $4 billion, and these numbers completely overwhelmed record performance in many, many of our other large businesses,"" said the CEO.

Pandit took up the top job at Citigroup in last December, following the departure of his predecessor, Charles Prince.