A new court-ordered report indicated that Citibank (NYSE: C), along with JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) may have helped cause the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Inc by changing guarantee agreements and demanding more collateral.

The 2,200 page report was filed on Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court by bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas. In the report, Valuka commented that “The demands for collateral by Lehman’s lenders had direct impact on Lehman’s liquidity.” He continued, “Lehman’s available liquidity is central to the question of why Lehman failed.”

The new report said that former Lehman Brothers Executive Officer Richard Fuld and other executives made misleading statements about the bank’s finances and that Fuld was “at least grossly negligent.”

New-York based Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008 and with $639 billion in assets.

Citibank spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apisolos made a statement to the press that the company is reviewing the report and said that a preliminary analysis shows that the examiner “has not identified any wrongdoing on Citi’s part.”

Valukas spent more than a year and $38 million to produce the report. He interviewed more than 100 individuals, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox. Valukas also scrutinized more than 10 million documents and 20 million pages of email from Lehman Brothers, according to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

This article (Did Citibank (NYSE: C) Help Lead Lehman Brothers to Bankruptcy?) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News. Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.

Standards & Poor’s reiterated its “hold” rating on shares of Citibank (NYSE: C) following a major surge in the company’s stock price closing at $4.18 per share on Thursday.

The Standards & Poor’s analyst, Matthew Albrecht, while reviewing rumors that the company would be selling its real-estate investment business, Apollo Global Management, as well as a possible exit of the U.S. Treasury from the Stock.

Albrecht wrote that the main issue with Citibank’s stock at the present time is the 7.7 billion shares that the U.S. Treasury Owns. Albrecht said that a divestment of the federal government in Citigroup would “likely would reduce share price appreciation near term.” However, he adds that “a return to profitability in late ‘10 could provide a catalyst.”

Citibank also received a second bump on Thursday when company CEO Vikram Pandit presented at a company-sponsored conference for investors. Pandit said that he saw strong opportunities for growth in emerging markets and targeted a compounded 5% growth rate for the company, with assets growing between 1.25% and 1.50% per year.

This article (Standards & Poor’s Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Citibank (NYSE: C)) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News. Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.

An Oppenheimer Funds analyst said on Friday that he believes Citibank (NYSE: C) shares are now fairly priced after this week’s run-up on positive comments from the company’s CEO, signs that the government may wind down its stake in the company and news that Citibank is set to sell its Citi Property Investors unit.

Citibank shares have jumped by 20% during the trading week.

Citibank CEO Vikram Pandit said earlier in the week that Citibank is returning to sustained profitability after having two years marked by major losses and a multi-billion dollar bailout. Pandit said that Citibank has overhauled its operations, is shedding its money-losing businesses and is placing a new emphasis on growth in emerging markets.

Another speculative event that helped raise the stock was rumors that the government might reduce its stake after a lock-up on Citigroup stock sales expires next Tuesday.

Oppenheimer Analyst Chris Kotowski said in a client note that “despite some hopeful signs, we believe that the stock is under something of a cloud, as long as the government remains a major shareholder.”

Kotowski thinks that the company will rebound once the consumer credit market regains traction and when the government ends its partial ownership of Citibank.

This article (Oppenheimer Says Citibank (NYSE: C) Now Fairly Valued) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News. Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.