Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit today hailed the turnaround in the US financial services group’s securities and banking arm, which returned to profitability in the first three months of this year after suffering its first quarterly loss since 2008 in the final three months of 2011.

Resurgent trading activity helped power revenues at the securities and banking division to $5.3bn in the first quarter of 2012, up 65% from the fourth quarter last year. However, revenues were 12% below their level in the first quarter last year because of losses due to credit and debt valuation adjustments related to the bank's own credit spreads.