Citigroup has taken a further $7.2 billion hit from the credit crunch in the second quarter, pushing the US investment bank giant into an overall loss of $2.5 billion for the period.

The Wall Street bank has now run up over $50 billion in writedowns on declining valuations of mortgage-related securities and losses on loans.

Merrill Lynch, which yesterday shocked investors with a larger-than-expected loss of $4.6 billion, has now taken a total $46 billion hit from the credit crunch after writing down a further $9.75 billion in the second quarter.

Despite Citigroup's loss, which compares to a $6.23 billion profit in the second quarter last year, the bank's results were above analysts' expectations who had forecast a steeper decline.

Total revenue for the quarter fell 29 per cent to $18.65 billion.

Citigroup's report comes a day after a mixed offering of banking results in which JPMorgan Chase unveiled surprisingly strong profits and Merrill Lynch disappointed the market.

JPMorgan announced a better-than-expected 52 per cent decline in its second-quarter profits to $2 billion, dragged down by a $4.6 billion hit from the credit crunch.

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