Citigroup (C)

Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

        The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

        The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company's customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancements provided by the Company.

        As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduits, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduits' assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduits. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from customers for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees. This administration fee is fairly stable, since most risks and rewards of the underlying assets are passed back to the customers and, once the asset pricing is negotiated, most ongoing income, costs and fees are relatively stable as a percentage of the conduit's size.

        The conduits administered by the Company do not generally invest in liquid securities that are formally rated by third parties. The assets are privately negotiated and structured transactions that are designed to be held by the conduit, rather than actively traded and sold. The yield earned by the conduit on each asset is generally tied to the rate on the commercial paper issued by the conduit, thus passing interest rate risk to the client. Each asset purchased by the conduit is structured with transaction-specific credit enhancement features provided by the third-party seller, including over-collateralization, cash and excess spread collateral accounts, direct recourse or third-party guarantees. These credit enhancements are sized with the objective of approximating a credit rating of A or above, based on the Company's internal risk ratings.

        Substantially all of the funding of the conduits is in the form of short-term commercial paper, with a weighted average life generally ranging from 30-45 days. As of September 30, 2009 and December 31, 2008, the weighted average life of the commercial paper issued was approximately 47 and 37 days, respectively. In addition, the conduits have issued subordinate loss notes and equity with a notional amount of approximately $76 million and varying remaining tenors ranging from 10 month to 6 years.

        The primary credit enhancement provided to the conduit investors is in the form of transaction-specific credit enhancement described above. In addition, there are generally two additional forms of credit enhancement that protect the commercial paper investors from defaulting assets. First, the subordinate loss notes issued by each conduit absorb any credit losses up to their full notional amount. It is expected that the subordinate loss notes issued by each unconsolidated conduit are sufficient to absorb a majority of the expected losses from each conduit, thereby making the single investor in the subordinate loss note the primary beneficiary. Second, each conduit has obtained a letter of credit from the Company, which is generally 8-10% of the conduit's assets. The letters of credit provided by the Company total approximately $3.7 billion and are included in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The net result across all multi-seller conduits administered by the Company is that, in the event defaulted assets exceed the transaction-specific credit enhancement described above, any losses in each conduit are allocated in the following order:

•

subordinate loss note holders,



•

the Company, and



•

the commercial paper investors.

        The Company also provides the conduits with two forms of liquidity agreements that are used to provide funding to the conduits in the event of a market disruption, among other events. Each asset of the conduit is supported by a transaction-specific liquidity facility in the form of an asset purchase agreement (APA). Under the APA, the Company has agreed to purchase non-defaulted eligible receivables from the conduit at par. Any assets purchased under the APA are subject to increased pricing. The APA is not designed to provide credit support to the conduit, as it generally does not permit the purchase of defaulted or impaired assets and generally reprices

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the assets purchased to consider potential increased credit risk. The APA covers all assets in the conduits and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. In addition, the Company provides the conduits with program-wide liquidity in the form of short-term lending commitments. Under these commitments, the Company has agreed to lend to the conduits in the event of a short-term disruption in the commercial paper market, subject to specified conditions. The total notional exposure under the program-wide liquidity agreement is $11.3 billion and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The Company receives fees for providing both types of liquidity agreement and considers these fees to be on fair market terms.

        Finally, the Company is one of several named dealers in the commercial paper issued by the conduits and earns a market-based fee for providing such services. Along with third-party dealers, the Company makes a market in the commercial paper and may from time to time fund commercial paper pending sale to a third party. On specific dates with less liquidity in the market, the Company may hold in inventory commercial paper issued by conduits administered by the Company, as well as conduits administered by third parties. The amount of commercial paper issued by its administered conduits held in inventory fluctuates based on market conditions and activity. As of September 30, 2009, the Company owned $109 million of the commercial paper issued by its administered conduits.

        The Company is required to quantitatively analyze the expected variability of the conduit to determine whether the Company is the primary beneficiary of the conduit. The Company performs this analysis on a quarterly basis. For conduits where the subordinate loss notes or third-party guarantees are sufficient to absorb a majority of the expected loss of the conduit, the Company does not consolidate. In circumstances where the subordinate loss notes or third-party guarantees are insufficient to absorb a majority of the expected loss, the Company consolidates the conduit as its primary beneficiary due to the additional credit enhancement provided by the Company. In conducting this analysis, the Company considers three primary sources of variability in the conduit: credit risk, interest-rate risk and fee variability.

        The Company models the credit risk of the conduit's assets using a Credit Value at Risk (C-VAR) model. The C-VAR model considers changes in credit spreads (both within a rating class as well as due to rating upgrades and downgrades), name-specific changes in credit spreads, credit defaults and recovery rates and diversification effects of pools of financial assets. The model incorporates data from independent rating agencies as well as the Company's own proprietary information regarding spread changes, ratings transitions and losses given default. Using this credit data, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed to develop a distribution of credit risk for the portfolio of assets owned by each conduit, which is then applied on a probability-weighted basis to determine expected losses due to credit risk. In addition, the Company continuously monitors the specific credit characteristics of the conduit's assets and the current credit environment to confirm that the C-VAR model used continues to incorporate the Company's best information regarding the expected credit risk of the conduit's assets.

        The Company also analyzes the variability in the fees that it earns from the conduit using monthly actual historical cash flow data to determine average fee and standard deviation measures for each conduit. Because any unhedged interest rate and foreign-currency risk not contractually passed on to customers is absorbed by the fees earned by the Company, the fee variability analysis incorporates those risks.

        The fee variability and credit risk variability are then combined into a single distribution of the conduit's overall returns. This return distribution is updated and analyzed on at least a quarterly basis to ensure that the amount of the subordinate loss notes issued to third parties is sufficient to absorb greater than 50% of the total expected variability in the conduit's returns. The expected variability absorbed by the subordinate loss note investors is therefore measured to be greater than the expected variability absorbed by the Company through its liquidity arrangements and other fees earned, and the investors in commercial paper and medium-term notes. While the notional amounts of the subordinate loss notes are quantitatively small compared to the size of the conduits, this is reflective of the fact that most of the substantive risks of the conduits are absorbed by the enhancements provided by the sellers (customers) and other third parties that provide transaction-level credit enhancement. Because these risks and related enhancements are generally required to be excluded from the analysis, the remaining risks and expected variability are quantitatively small. The calculation of variability focuses primarily on expected variability, rather than the risks associated with extreme outcomes (for example, large levels of default) that are expected to occur very infrequently. So while the subordinate loss notes are sized appropriately compared to expected losses, they do not provide significant protection against extreme or unusual credit losses. Where such credit losses occur or become expected to occur, the Company would consolidate the conduit due to the additional credit enhancement provided by the Company.

Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

     The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company’s customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancements provided by the Company and by certain third parties. As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring of assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduits, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduits’ assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduits. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from clients for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees. This administration fee is fairly stable, since most risks and rewards of the underlying assets are passed back to the customers and, once the asset pricing is negotiated, most ongoing income, costs and fees are relatively stable as a percentage of the conduit’s size.

The conduits administered by the Company do not generally invest in liquid securities that are formally rated by third parties. The assets are privately negotiated and structured transactions that are designed to be held by the

74

Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

        The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

        The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company's customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancements provided by the Company.

        As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring of assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduits, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduits' assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduits. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from customers for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees. This administration fee is fairly stable, since most risks and rewards of the underlying assets are passed back to the customers and, once the asset pricing is negotiated, most ongoing income, costs and fees are relatively stable as a percentage of the conduit's size.

        The conduits administered by the Company do not generally invest in liquid securities that are formally rated by third parties. The assets are privately negotiated and structured transactions that are designed to be held by the conduit, rather than actively traded and sold. The yield earned by the conduit on each asset is generally tied to the rate on the commercial paper issued by the conduit, thus passing interest rate risk to the client. Each asset purchased by the conduit is structured with transaction-specific credit enhancement features provided by the third-party seller, including over-collateralization, cash and excess spread collateral accounts, direct recourse or third-party guarantees. These credit enhancements are sized with the objective of approximating a credit rating of A or above, based on the Company's internal risk ratings.

        Substantially all of the funding of the conduits is in the form of short-term commercial paper, with a weighted average life generally ranging from 30-45 days. As of June 30, 2009, and December 31, 2008, the weighted average life of the commercial paper issued was approximately 36 and 37 days, respectively. In addition, the conduits have issued subordinate loss notes and equity with a notional amount of approximately $78 million and varying remaining tenors ranging from one month to six years.

        The primary credit enhancement provided to the conduit investors is in the form of transaction-specific credit enhancement described above. In addition, there are generally two additional forms of credit enhancement that protect the commercial paper investors from defaulting assets. First, the subordinate loss notes issued by each conduit absorb any credit losses up to their full notional amount. It is expected that the subordinate loss notes issued by each unconsolidated conduit are sufficient to absorb a majority of the expected losses from each conduit, thereby making the single investor in the Subordinate Loss Note the primary beneficiary under FIN 46(R)(ASC 810-10-25). Second, each conduit has obtained a letter of credit from the Company, which is generally 8-10% of the conduit's assets. The letters of credit provided by the Company total approximately $4.2 billion and are included in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The net result across all multi-seller conduits administered by the Company is that, in the event defaulted assets exceed the transaction-specific credit enhancement described above, any losses in each conduit are allocated in the following order:

•

Subordinate loss note holders,



•

the Company, and



•

the commercial paper investors.

        The Company also provides the conduits with two forms of liquidity agreements that are used to provide funding to the conduits in the event of a market disruption, among other events. Each asset of the conduit is supported by a transaction-specific liquidity facility in the form of an asset purchase agreement (APA). Under the APA, the Company has agreed to purchase non-defaulted eligible receivables from the conduit at par. Any assets purchased under the APA are subject to increased pricing. The APA is not designed to provide credit support to the conduit, as it generally does not permit the purchase of defaulted or impaired assets and generally reprices the assets purchased to consider potential increased credit risk.

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The APA covers all assets in the conduits and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. In addition, the Company provides the conduits with program-wide liquidity in the form of short-term lending commitments. Under these commitments, the Company has agreed to lend to the conduits in the event of a short-term disruption in the commercial paper market, subject to specified conditions. The total notional exposure under the program-wide liquidity agreement is $11.8 billion and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The Company receives fees for providing both types of liquidity agreement and considers these fees to be on fair market terms.

        Finally, the Company is one of several named dealers in the commercial paper issued by the conduits and earns a market-based fee for providing such services. Along with third-party dealers, the Company makes a market in the commercial paper and may from time to time fund commercial paper pending sale to a third party. On specific dates with less liquidity in the market, the Company may hold in inventory commercial paper issued by conduits administered by the Company, as well as conduits administered by third parties. The amount of commercial paper issued by its administered conduits held in inventory fluctuates based on market conditions and activity. As of June 30, 2009, the Company owned approximately $0.2 billion of the commercial paper issued by its administered conduits.

        FIN 46(R)(ASC 810-10-25) requires that the Company quantitatively analyze the expected variability of the conduit to determine whether the Company is the primary beneficiary of the conduit. The Company performs this analysis on a quarterly basis. For conduits where the subordinate loss notes or third party guarantees are sufficient to absorb a majority of the expected loss of the conduit, the Company does not consolidate. In circumstances where the subordinate loss notes or third party guarantees are insufficient to absorb a majority of the expected loss, the Company consolidates the conduit as its primary beneficiary due to the additional credit enhancement provided by the Company. In conducting this analysis, the Company considers three primary sources of variability in the conduit: credit risk, interest-rate risk and fee variability.

        The Company models the credit risk of the conduit's assets using a Credit Value at Risk (C-VaR) model. The C-VaR model considers changes in credit spreads (both within a rating class as well as due to rating upgrades and downgrades), name-specific changes in credit spreads, credit defaults and recovery rates and diversification effects of pools of financial assets. The model incorporates data from independent rating agencies as well as the Company's own proprietary information regarding spread changes, ratings transitions and losses given default. Using this credit data, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed to develop a distribution of credit risk for the portfolio of assets owned by each conduit, which is then applied on a probability-weighted basis to determine expected losses due to credit risk. In addition, the Company continuously monitors the specific credit characteristics of the conduit's assets and the current credit environment to confirm that the C-VaR model used continues to incorporate the Company's best information regarding the expected credit risk of the conduit's assets.

        The Company also analyzes the variability in the fees that it earns from the conduit using monthly actual historical cash flow data to determine average fee and standard deviation measures for each conduit. Because any unhedged interest rate and foreign-currency risk not contractually passed on to customers is absorbed by the fees earned by the Company, the fee variability analysis incorporates those risks.

        The fee variability and credit risk variability are then combined into a single distribution of the conduit's overall returns. This return distribution is updated and analyzed on at least a quarterly basis to ensure that the amount of the subordinate loss notes issued to third parties is sufficient to absorb greater than 50% of the total expected variability in the conduit's returns. The expected variability absorbed by the subordinate loss note investors is therefore measured to be greater than the expected variability absorbed by the Company through its liquidity arrangements and other fees earned, and the investors in commercial paper and medium-term notes. While the notional amounts of the subordinate loss notes are quantitatively small compared to the size of the conduits, this is reflective of the fact that most of the substantive risks of the conduits are absorbed by the enhancements provided by the sellers (customers) and other third parties that provide transaction-level credit enhancement. Because FIN 46(R) (ASC 810-10-25) generally requires these risks and related enhancements to be excluded from the analysis, the remaining risks and expected variability are quantitatively small. The calculation of variability under FIN 46(R)(ASC 810-10-25) focuses primarily on expected variability, rather than the risks associated with extreme outcomes (for example, large levels of default) that are expected to occur very infrequently. So while the subordinate loss notes are sized appropriately compared to expected losses as measured in FIN 46(R)(ASC 810-10-25), they do not provide significant protection against extreme or unusual credit losses. Where such credit losses occur or become expected to occur, the Company would consolidate the conduit due to the additional credit enhancement provided by the Company.

Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

        The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

        The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company's customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancements provided by the Company.

        As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring of assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduits, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduits' assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduits. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from customers for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees. This administration fee is fairly stable, since most risks and rewards of the underlying assets are passed back to the customers and, once the asset pricing is negotiated, most ongoing income, costs and fees are relatively stable as a percentage of the conduit's size.

        The conduits administered by the Company do not generally invest in liquid securities that are formally rated

108

by third parties. The assets are privately negotiated and structured transactions that are designed to be held by the conduit, rather than actively traded and sold. The yield earned by the conduit on each asset is generally tied to the rate on the commercial paper issued by the conduit, thus passing interest rate risk to the client. Each asset purchased by the conduit is structured with transaction-specific credit enhancement features provided by the third-party seller, including over-collateralization, cash and excess spread collateral accounts, direct recourse or third-party guarantees. These credit enhancements are sized with the objective of approximating a credit rating of A or above, based on the Company's internal risk ratings.

        Substantially all of the funding of the conduits is in the form of short-term commercial paper, with a weighted average life generally ranging from 30-45 days. As of March 31, 2009, and December 31, 2008, the weighted average life of the commercial paper issued was approximately 33 and 37 days, respectively. In addition, the conduits have issued subordinate loss notes and equity with a notional amount of approximately $80 million and varying remaining tenors ranging from three months to six years.

        The primary credit enhancement provided to the conduit investors is in the form of transaction-specific credit enhancement described above. In addition, there are two additional forms of credit enhancement that protect the commercial paper investors from defaulting assets. First, the subordinate loss notes issued by each conduit absorb any credit losses up to their full notional amount. It is expected that the subordinate loss notes issued by each conduit are sufficient to absorb a majority of the expected losses from each conduit, thereby making the single investor in the Subordinate Loss Note the primary beneficiary under FIN 46(R). Second, each conduit has obtained a letter of credit from the Company, which is generally 8-10% of the conduit's assets. The letters of credit provided by the Company total approximately $5.5 billion and are included in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The net result across all multi-seller conduits administered by the Company is that, in the event defaulted assets exceed the transaction-specific credit enhancement described above, any losses in each conduit are allocated in the following order:

•

Subordinate loss note holders,



•

the Company, and



•

the commercial paper investors.

        The Company also provides the conduits with two forms of liquidity agreements that are used to provide funding to the conduits in the event of a market disruption, among other events. Each asset of the conduit is supported by a transaction-specific liquidity facility in the form of an asset purchase agreement (APA). Under the APA, the Company has agreed to purchase non-defaulted eligible receivables from the conduit at par. Any assets purchased under the APA are subject to increased pricing. The APA is not designed to provide credit support to the conduit, as it generally does not permit the purchase of defaulted or impaired assets and generally reprices the assets purchased to consider potential increased credit risk. The APA covers all assets in the conduits and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. In addition, the Company provides the conduits with program-wide liquidity in the form of short-term lending commitments. Under these commitments, the Company has agreed to lend to the conduits in the event of a short-term disruption in the commercial paper market, subject to specified conditions. The total notional exposure under the program-wide liquidity agreement is $11.3 billion and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The Company receives fees for providing both types of liquidity agreement and considers these fees to be on fair market terms.

        Finally, the Company is one of several named dealers in the commercial paper issued by the conduits and earns a market-based fee for providing such services. Along with third-party dealers, the Company makes a market in the commercial paper and may from time to time fund commercial paper pending sale to a third party. On specific dates with less liquidity in the market, the Company may hold in inventory commercial paper issued by conduits administered by the Company, as well as conduits administered by third parties. The amount of commercial paper issued by its administered conduits held in inventory fluctuates based on market conditions and activity. As of March 31, 2009, the Company owned $5 million of commercial paper issued by its administered conduits.

        FIN 46(R) requires that the Company quantitatively analyze the expected variability of the conduit to determine whether the Company is the primary beneficiary of the conduit. The Company performs this analysis on a quarterly basis and has concluded that the Company is not the primary beneficiary of the conduits as defined in FIN 46(R) and, therefore, does not consolidate the conduits it administers. In conducting this analysis, the Company considers three primary sources of variability in the conduit: credit risk, interest-rate risk and fee variability.

        The Company models the credit risk of the conduit's assets using a Credit Value at Risk (C-VaR) model. The C-VaR model considers changes in credit spreads (both within a rating class as well as due to rating upgrades and downgrades), name-specific changes in credit spreads, credit defaults and recovery rates and diversification effects of pools of financial assets. The model incorporates data from independent rating agencies as well as the Company's own proprietary information regarding spread changes, ratings transitions and losses given default. Using this credit data, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed to develop a distribution of credit risk for the portfolio of assets owned by each conduit, which is then applied on a probability-weighted basis to determine expected losses due to credit risk. In addition, the Company continuously monitors the specific credit characteristics of the conduit's assets and the current credit environment to confirm that the C-VaR model used continues to incorporate the Company's best information regarding the expected credit risk of the conduit's assets.

        The Company also analyzes the variability in the fees that it earns from the conduit using monthly actual historical cash flow data to determine average fee and standard deviation measures for each conduit. Because any unhedged interest rate and foreign-currency risk not contractually passed on to

109

customers is absorbed by the fees earned by the Company, the fee variability analysis incorporates those risks.

        The fee variability and credit risk variability are then combined into a single distribution of the conduit's overall returns. This return distribution is updated and analyzed on at least a quarterly basis to ensure that the amount of the subordinate loss notes issued to third parties is sufficient to absorb greater than 50% of the total expected variability in the conduit's returns. The expected variability absorbed by the subordinate loss note investors is therefore measured to be greater than the expected variability absorbed by the Company through its liquidity arrangements and other fees earned, and the investors in commercial paper and medium-term notes. While the notional amounts of the subordinate loss notes are quantitatively small compared to the size of the conduits, this is reflective of the fact that most of the substantive risks of the conduits are absorbed by the enhancements provided by the sellers (customers) and other third parties that provide transaction-level credit enhancement. Because FIN 46(R) requires these risks and related enhancements to be excluded from the analysis, the remaining risks and expected variability are quantitatively small. The calculation of variability under FIN 46(R) focuses primarily on expected variability, rather than the risks associated with extreme outcomes (for example, large levels of default) that are expected to occur very infrequently. So while the subordinate loss notes are sized appropriately compared to expected losses as measured in FIN 46(R), they do not provide significant protection against extreme or unusual credit losses.

Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company’s customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancements provided by the Company and by certain third parties. As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring of assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduits, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduits’ assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduits. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from clients for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees. This administration fee is fairly stable, since most risks and rewards of the underlying assets are passed back to the customers and, once the asset pricing is negotiated, most ongoing income, costs and fees are relatively stable as a percentage of the conduit’s size.

The conduits administered by the Company do not generally invest in liquid securities that are formally rated by third parties. The assets are privately negotiated and structured transactions that are designed to be held by the conduit, rather than actively traded and sold. The yield earned by the conduit on each asset is generally tied to the rate on the commercial paper issued by the conduit, thus passing interest rate risk to the client. Each asset purchased by the conduit is structured with transaction-specific credit

Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company’s customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancements provided by the Company and by certain third parties. As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring of assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduits, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduits’ assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduits. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from clients for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees. This administration fee is fairly stable, since most risks and rewards of the underlying assets are passed back to the customers and, once the asset pricing is negotiated, most ongoing income, costs and fees are relatively stable as a percentage of the conduit’s size.

The conduits administered by the Company do not generally invest in liquid securities that are formally rated by third parties. The assets are privately negotiated and structured transactions that are designed to be held by the conduit, rather than actively traded and sold. The yield earned by the conduit on each asset is generally tied to the rate on the commercial paper issued by the conduit, thus passing interest rate risk to the client. Each asset purchased by the conduit is structured with transaction-specific credit

Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company’s customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing high-grade commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancement provided by the Company and by certain third parties. As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduit, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduit’s assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduit. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from clients for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees.

Citi-administered Asset-backed Commercial Paper Conduits

        The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

66

        The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company's customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancements provided by the Company and by certain third parties. As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for the selection and structuring of assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduits, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduits' assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduits.

        In return, the Company earns structuring fees from clients for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees. This administration fee is fairly stable, since most risks and rewards of the underlying assets are passed back to the customers and, once the asset pricing is negotiated, most ongoing income, costs and fees are relatively stable as a percentage of the conduit's size.

        The conduits administered by the Company do not generally invest in liquid securities that are formally rated by third parties. The assets are privately negotiated and structured transactions that are designed to be held by the conduit, rather than actively traded and sold. The yield earned by the conduit on each asset is generally tied to the rate on the commercial paper issued by the conduit, thus passing interest rate risk to the client. Each asset purchased by the conduit is structured with transaction-specific credit enhancement features provided by the third-party seller, including over-collateralization, cash and excess spread collateral accounts, direct recourse or third-party guarantees. Credit enhancements are sized based on historic asset performance to achieve an internal risk rating that, on average, approximates an AA or A rating.

        Over time, substantially all of the funding of the conduits is in the form of commercial paper, with a weighted average life historically ranging from 35-45 days. As of September 30, 2008 and December 31, 2007, the weighted average life of the commercial paper issued was approximately 58 days and 30 days, respectively. In addition, the conduits have issued Subordinate Loss Notes and equity with a notional amount of approximately $81 million and $77 million as of September 30, 2008 and December 31, 2007, respectively, with varying remaining tenors ranging from nine months to seven years.

        The primary credit enhancement provided to the conduit investors is in the form of transaction-specific credit enhancement described above. In addition, there are two additional forms of credit enhancement that protect the commercial paper investors from defaulting assets. First, the Subordinate Loss Notes issued by each conduit absorb any credit losses up to their full notional amount. It is expected that the Subordinate Loss Notes issued by each conduit are sufficient to absorb a majority of the expected losses from each conduit, thereby making the single investor in the Subordinate Loss Note the primary beneficiary under FIN 46-R. Second, each conduit has obtained either a letter of credit from the Company or a surety bond from a monoline insurer that will reimburse the conduit for any losses up to a specified amount, which is generally 8-10% of the conduit's assets. Where surety bonds are obtained, the Company, in turn, provides the surety bond provider a reimbursement guarantee up to a stated amount for aggregate losses incurred by any of the conduits covered by the surety bond. The total of the letters of credit and the reimbursement guarantee provided by the Company is approximately $1.8 billion and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The net result across all multi-seller conduits administered by the Company is that, in the event of defaulted assets in excess of the transaction-specific credit enhancement described above, any losses in each conduit are allocated in the following order:

•

Subordinate Loss Note holders



•

the Company



•

the monoline insurer, if any (up to the 8%-10% cap), and



•

the commercial paper investors.

        The Company, along with third parties, also provides the conduits with two forms of liquidity facilities that are used to provide funding to the conduits in the event of a market disruption, among other events. Each asset of the conduit is supported by a transaction-specific liquidity facility in the form of an asset purchase agreement (APA). Under the APA, the Company has agreed to purchase non-defaulted eligible receivables from the conduit at par. Any assets purchased under the APA are subject to increased pricing. The APA is not designed to provide credit support to the conduit, as it generally does not permit the purchase of defaulted or impaired assets and generally reprices the assets purchased to consider any potential increased credit risk. The APA covers all assets in the conduits and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. In addition, the Company provides the conduits with program-wide liquidity in the form of short-term lending commitments. Under these commitments, the Company has agreed to lend to the conduits in the event of a short-term disruption in the commercial paper market, subject to specified conditions. The total notional exposure under the program-wide liquidity agreement is $11.3 billion and is considered in the Company's maximum exposure to loss. The Company receives fees for providing both types of liquidity agreements, and considers these fees to be on fair market terms.

        Finally, the Company is one of several named dealers in the commercial paper issued by the conduits and earns a market-based fee for providing such services. Along with third-party dealers, the Company makes a market in the commercial paper and may from time to time fund commercial paper pending sale to a third party. On specific dates with less liquidity in the market, the Company may hold in inventory commercial paper issued by conduits administered by the Company, as well as conduits administered by third parties. The amount of commercial paper issued by its administered conduits held in inventory fluctuates based on market conditions and activity. As of September 30, 2008 and December 31, 2007, the Company owned approximately $449 million and $10 million, respectively, of commercial paper issued by its administered conduits.

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        FIN 46-R requires that the Company quantitatively analyze the expected variability of the Conduit to determine whether the Company is the primary beneficiary of the conduit. The Company performs this analysis on a quarterly basis, and has concluded that the Company is not the primary beneficiary of the conduits as defined in FIN 46-R and, therefore, does not consolidate the conduits it administers. In conducting this analysis, the Company considers three primary sources of variability in the conduit: credit risk, interest rate risk and fee variability.

        The Company models the credit risk of the conduit's assets using a Credit Value at Risk (C-VaR) model. The C-VaR model considers changes in credit spreads (both within a rating class as well as due to rating upgrades and downgrades), name-specific changes in credit spreads, credit defaults and recovery rates and diversification effects of pools of financial assets. The model incorporates data from independent rating agencies as well as the Company's own proprietary information regarding spread changes, ratings transitions and losses given default. Using this credit data, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed to develop a distribution of credit risk for the portfolio of assets owned by each conduit, which is then applied on a probability-weighted basis to determine expected losses due to credit risk. In addition, the Company continuously monitors the specific credit characteristics of the conduit's assets and the current credit environment to confirm that the C-VaR model used continues to incorporate the Company's best information regarding the expected credit risk of the conduit's assets.

        The Company also analyzes the variability in the fees that it earns from the conduit, using monthly actual historical cash flow data to determine average fee and standard deviation measures for each conduit. Because any unhedged interest rate and foreign currency risk not contractually passed on to customers is absorbed by the fees earned by the Company, the fee variability analysis incorporates those risks.

        The fee variability and credit risk variability are then combined into a single distribution of the conduit's overall returns. This return distribution is updated and analyzed on at least a quarterly basis to ensure that the amount of the Subordinate Loss Notes issued to third parties is sufficient to absorb greater than 50% of the total expected variability in the conduit's returns. The expected variability absorbed by the Subordinate Loss Note investors is therefore measured to be greater than the expected variability absorbed by the Company through its liquidity arrangements and other fees earned, the surety bond providers, and the investors in commercial paper and medium-term notes. While the notional amounts of the Subordinate Loss Notes are quantitatively small compared to the size of the conduits, this is reflective of the fact that most of the substantive risks of the conduits are absorbed by the enhancements provided by the sellers and other third parties that provide transaction-level credit enhancements. Because FIN 46-R requires these risks and related enhancements to be excluded from the analysis, the remaining risks and expected variability are quantitatively small. The calculation of variability under FIN 46-R focuses primarily on expected variability, rather than the risks associated with extreme outcomes (for example, large levels of default) that are expected to occur very infrequently. So while the Subordinate Loss Notes are sized appropriately compared to expected losses as measured in FIN 46-R, they do not provide significant protection against extreme or unusual credit losses.

        The following tables describe the important characteristics of assets owned by the administered multi-seller conduits as of September 30, 2008 and December 31, 2007:

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Citi-Administered Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Conduits

        The Company is active in the asset-backed commercial paper conduit business as administrator of several multi-seller commercial paper conduits, and also as a service provider to single-seller and other commercial paper conduits sponsored by third parties.

        The multi-seller commercial paper conduits are designed to provide the Company's customers access to low-cost funding in the commercial paper markets. The conduits purchase assets from or provide financing facilities to customers and are funded by issuing high-grade commercial paper to third-party investors. The conduits generally do not purchase assets originated by the Company. The funding of the conduit is facilitated by the liquidity support and credit enhancement provided by the Company and by certain third parties. As administrator to the conduits, the Company is responsible for selecting and structuring assets purchased or financed by the conduits, making decisions regarding the funding of the conduit, including determining the tenor and other features of the commercial paper issued, monitoring the quality and performance of the conduit's assets, and facilitating the operations and cash flows of the conduit. In return, the Company earns structuring fees from clients for individual transactions and earns an administration fee from the conduit, which is equal to the income from client program and liquidity fees of the conduit after payment of interest costs and other fees.