The global credit crisis continues to fester, infecting lenders large and small. On Friday, banking titan Citigroup Inc. said it would sell its German retail banking business to Credit Mutuel Group for €4.9 billion ($7.7billion) after the French lender outbid German rival Deutsche Bank AG for the unit. The proceeds will boost Citi's balance sheet, which has been depleted by more than $45 billion of write-downs and credit-related losses in the past nine months. The sale is part of a global strategic review instigated by recently installed CEO Vikram Pandit, who told investors in May he would offload about $100 billion of noncore businesses.
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