Profits from Citigroup’s securities and banking business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the third quarter were five times bigger than in 2008, but lower Asian profits and a fresh quarterly loss in North America pulled global profits from the business down two-thirds to $755m (€507.2m) from last year’s level.

Citigroup today revealed in its third-quarter results statement that securities and banking profits from continuing operations fell from $2.2bn in the third quarter last year. The figure was 60% down from the second-quarter performance this year.