When banks use capital made of sand

“According to its recent 10-Q, Citi had $38 billion of deferred tax assets as of Sept. 30, more than a third of the bank’s tangible common equity of $107 billion.

Backing that out, Citi’s TCE ratio — the inverse of leverage — is reduced from 5.7 percent to 3.7 percent. And when Citi adopts new accounting rules for off-balance-sheet assets, the ratio will be reduced further to 2.8 percent.”

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