Citigroup Inc.(C) said it strongly disagrees with Moody's analysis of the banking industry and firmly believes its downgrade of Citi is arbitrary and completely unwarranted.
The company said that Moody's approach is backward-looking and fails to recognize Citi's transformation over the past several years, the strength and diversity of Citi's franchise, and the substantial improvements in Citi's risk management, capital levels and liquidity.
Overall, Citi has greatly improved its safety and soundness since the financial crisis. At the end of the first quarter of 2012, Citi had over $420 billion of surplus liquidity held generally in cash and government securities, the company said.
The company noted that it has surplus liquidity based on a variety of stress tests and liquidity models, and Citi exceeds the proposed Basel III Liquidity Coverage Ratio requirement with a ratio of approximately 125%, even though this measurement does not go into effect until 2015.
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