Citigroup, America's largest banking group, today admitted it will cut 9,000 jobs in addition to an already planned 4,200 cull as it posted its second consecutive loss of $5.1 billion (£2.5 billion) after writing off $15.1 billion in toxic assets.

Citigroup's loss was worse than expected after analysts had expected the bank to post a loss of $4.75 billion for the first three months of the year. Citigroup's revenue plunged 48 per cent to $13.2 billion, compared with the average estimate of $11.1 billion from analysts. So far,Citigroup has taken a total $33 billion hit from the credit crunch.

The planned job cuts, which now total 13,200, follow Merrill Lynch's announcement yesterday that it will reduce its workforce by 4,000. Citigroup currently employs 369,000 staff including 11,000 in Britain. A spokesman at Citigroup declined to comment on how may cuts would be implemented in the UK, stating there was no geographical break-out of where the reductions would occur.

Vikram Pandit, the chief executive of Citigroup, who took over the role after his predecessor, Charles Prince, was ousted in December, said today: "Our financial results reflect the continuation of the unprecedented market and credit environment and its impact on our historical risk positions.

"During the first quarter, valuations of our sub-prime related exposures in fixed income markets and leveraged finance assets have further declined and credit costs in our consumer lending businesses have increased. Despite the negative factors in the broader markets, we continue to see strong momentum throughout the organization with robust volumes in many of our products and regions."

The bank wrote down the value of its sub-prime mortgage investment portolio by $6 billion and its leveraged loan book by $3.1 billion. It also wrote off $3.1 billion worth of insurance it had taken out against defaults on its sub-prime bond investments amid fears that the underwriters will be so swamped with claims that they would not be able to pay out on some of their policies.

Citigroup took a further $1.5 billion hit on its so-called auction rate security investments, as the market for these types of assets virtually dried up in the first quarter. Furthermore, the bank took a $3.1 billion writedown in its global consumer division as the housing crisis fed through into late car loan and credit card payments.

It comes after Merrill Lynch announced a further $6.5 billion hit from the credit crunch that pushed the group to an overall net loss of $1.96 billion for the first quarter compared with a profit of $2.16 billion a year earlier.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax