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By assets, Citigroup (NYSE:C) is the largest bank in America, and it continues to take out its scalpel to remain in that position, as it continues to trim the fat from its portfolio of loans, as well as workers.

Somehow investors took the news that the bank did worse than expected as some type of positive, and the shares of the company surged on the news they were going to cut 9,000 more jobs and had to write down over $14 billion for the quarter; giving the company a $5.1 billion loss.

The job cuts will include close to 7,000 in the consumer banking unit of the company.

Profits in the U.S. consumer business plunged by 84 percent to finish at only $279 million for the first quarter. The cost of credit also cut deeply into the net income of the company, plunging by 34 percent, with 23 percent of that coming from large net credit losses.

he increase in deposits and loans that were on average higher, the consumer banking unit grew revenue by 9 percent in the quarter, with higher average loans up 24 percent and deposits up by 5 percent. Checking accounts also enjoyed a 5 percent increase for the quarter.

Since the housing and credit problems started, Citigroup has announced 13,200 in job cuts and over $38 billion in write-downs.

One smart person out there, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit had the right idea, saying he was "'not happy' with the results."
 
He also said he's continuing to sell assets in order to free up more cash, while also getting rid of divisions that are outside the core businesses of the company. He was referring to retail and investment banking, processing of transactions and trading.

After taking away the one-time gains from the MasterCard (NYSE:MA) and Visa (NYSE:V) IPOs, revenue for the credit card business in the U.S. dropped by 8 percent in the first quarter.
 
Some of the steps Pandit has taken since taking over Citigroup has been to cut collateralized obligations related to subprime mortgages by 23 percent, while also cutting back on leveraged-buyouts losing money by 35 percent. He hired seven senior executives to watch closely over trading risks.
 
"We're very, very focused on efficiency," Pandit said during the analyst call.