GUARANTEES AND COMMITMENTS

Citi provides a variety of guarantees and indemnifications to its customers to enhance their credit standing and enable them to complete a wide variety of business transactions. For certain contracts meeting the definition of a guarantee, the guarantor must recognize, at inception, a liability for the fair value of the obligation undertaken in issuing the guarantee.

In addition, the guarantor must disclose the maximum potential amount of future payments that the guarantor could be required to make under the guarantee, if there were a total

default by the guaranteed parties. The determination of the maximum potential future payments is based on the notional amount of the guarantees without consideration of possible recoveries under recourse provisions or from collateral held or pledged. As such, Citi believes such amounts bear no relationship to the anticipated losses, if any, on these guarantees.

The following tables present information about Citi’s guarantees at September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013:



	Maximum potential amount of future payments
In billions of dollars at September 30, 2014 except carrying value in millions	Expire within 1 year		Expire after 1 year		Total amount outstanding		Carrying value (in millions of dollars)
Financial standby letters of credit	$	24.6	$	73.2	$	97.8	$	257
Performance guarantees	7.2		4.7		11.9		33
Derivative instruments considered to be guarantees	15.4		77.2		92.6		1,404
Loans sold with recourse	—		0.2		0.2		16
Securities lending indemnifications⁽¹⁾	105.7		—		105.7		—
Credit card merchant processing⁽¹⁾	86.5		—		86.5		—
Custody indemnifications and other	—		41.0		41.0		54
Total	$	239.4	$	196.3	$	435.7	$	1,764



	Maximum potential amount of future payments
In billions of dollars at December 31, 2013 except carrying value in millions	Expire within 1 year		Expire after 1 year		Total amount outstanding		Carrying value (in millions of dollars)
Financial standby letters of credit	$	28.8	$	71.4	$	100.2	$	429
Performance guarantees	7.6		4.9		12.5		42
Derivative instruments considered to be guarantees	6.0		61.6		67.6		797
Loans sold with recourse	—		0.3		0.3		22
Securities lending indemnifications⁽¹⁾	79.2		—		79.2		—
Credit card merchant processing⁽¹⁾	85.9		—		85.9		—
Custody indemnifications and other	—		36.3		36.3		53
Total	$	207.5	$	174.5	$	382.0	$	1,343


(1)	The carrying values of securities lending indemnifications and credit card merchant processing were not material for either period presented, as the probability of potential liabilities arising from these guarantees is minimal.

Financial standby letters of credit

Citi issues standby letters of credit which substitute its own credit for that of the borrower. If a letter of credit is drawn down, the borrower is obligated to repay Citi. Standby letters of credit protect a third party from defaults on contractual obligations. Financial standby letters of credit include: (i) guarantees of payment of insurance premiums and reinsurance risks that support industrial revenue bond underwriting; (ii) settlement of payment obligations to clearing houses, including futures and over-the-counter derivatives clearing (see further discussion below); (iii) support options and purchases of securities in lieu of escrow deposit accounts; and (iv) letters of credit that backstop loans, credit facilities, promissory notes and trade acceptances.

Performance guarantees

Performance guarantees and letters of credit are issued to guarantee a customer’s tender bid on a construction or systems-installation project or to guarantee completion of such projects in accordance with contract terms. They are also issued to support a customer’s obligation to supply specified products, commodities, or maintenance or warranty services to a third party.

Derivative instruments considered to be guarantees

Derivatives are financial instruments whose cash flows are based on a notional amount and an underlying instrument, reference credit or index, where there is little or no initial investment, and whose terms require or permit net settlement. For a discussion of Citi’s derivatives activities, see Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Derivative instruments considered to be guarantees include only those instruments that require Citi to make payments to the counterparty based on changes in an underlying instrument that is related to an asset, a liability or an equity security held by the guaranteed party. More specifically, derivative instruments considered to be guarantees include certain over-the-counter written put options where the counterparty is not a bank, hedge fund or broker-dealer (such counterparties are considered to be dealers in these markets and may, therefore, not hold the underlying instruments). Credit derivatives sold by Citi are excluded from the tables above as they are disclosed separately in Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. In instances where Citi’s maximum potential future payment is unlimited, the notional amount of the contract is disclosed.

Loans sold with recourse

Loans sold with recourse represent Citi’s obligations to reimburse the buyers for loan losses under certain circumstances. Recourse refers to the clause in a sales agreement under which a seller/lender will fully reimburse the buyer/investor for any losses resulting from the purchased loans. This may be accomplished by the seller taking back any loans that become delinquent.

In addition to the amounts shown in the tables above, Citi has recorded a repurchase reserve for its potential repurchases or make-whole liability regarding residential mortgage representation and warranty claims related to its whole loan sales to the U.S. government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and, to a lesser extent, private investors. The repurchase reserve was approximately $225 million and $341 million at September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively, and these amounts are included in Other liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheet.

Securities lending indemnifications

Owners of securities frequently lend those securities for a fee to other parties who may sell them short or deliver them to another party to satisfy some other obligation. Banks may administer such securities lending programs for their clients. Securities lending indemnifications are issued by the bank to guarantee that a securities lending customer will be made whole in the event that the security borrower does not return the security subject to the lending agreement and collateral held is insufficient to cover the market value of the security.

Credit card merchant processing

Credit card merchant processing guarantees represent the Company’s indirect obligations in connection with: (i) providing transaction processing services to various merchants with respect to its private-label cards; and (ii) potential liability for bank card transaction processing services. The nature of the liability in either case arises as a result of a billing dispute between a merchant and a cardholder that is ultimately resolved in the cardholder’s favor. The merchant is liable to refund the amount to the cardholder. In general, if the credit card processing company is unable to collect this amount from the merchant, the credit card processing company bears the loss for the amount of the credit or refund paid to the cardholder.

With regard to (i) above, Citi has the primary contingent liability with respect to its portfolio of private-label merchants. The risk of loss is mitigated as the cash flows between Citi and the merchant are settled on a net basis and Citi has the right to offset any payments with cash flows otherwise due to the merchant. To further mitigate this risk, Citi may delay settlement, require a merchant to make an escrow deposit, include event triggers to provide Citi with more financial and operational control in the event of the financial deterioration of the merchant or require various credit enhancements (including letters of credit and bank guarantees). In the unlikely event that a private-label merchant is unable to deliver products, services or a refund to its private-label cardholders, Citi is contingently liable to credit or refund cardholders.

With regard to (ii) above, Citi has a potential liability for bank card transactions where Citi provides the transaction processing services as well as those where a third party provides the services and Citi acts as a secondary guarantor, should that processor fail to perform.

Citi’s maximum potential contingent liability related to both bank card and private-label merchant processing services is estimated to be the total volume of credit card transactions that meet the requirements to be valid charge-back transactions at any given time. At September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, this maximum potential exposure was estimated to be $87 billion and $86 billion, respectively.

However, Citi believes that the maximum exposure is not representative of the actual potential loss exposure based on its historical experience. This contingent liability is unlikely to arise, as most products and services are delivered when purchased and amounts are refunded when items are returned to merchants. Citi assesses the probability and amount of its contingent liability related to merchant processing based on the financial strength of the primary guarantor, the extent and nature of unresolved charge-backs and its historical loss experience. At September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the losses incurred and the carrying amounts of Citi’s contingent obligations related to merchant processing activities were immaterial.

Custody indemnifications

Custody indemnifications are issued to guarantee that custody clients will be made whole in the event that a third-party subcustodian or depository institution fails to safeguard clients’ assets.

Other guarantees and indemnifications

Credit Card Protection Programs

Citi, through its credit card businesses, provides various cardholder protection programs on several of its card products, including programs that provide insurance coverage for rental cars, coverage for certain losses associated with purchased products, price protection for certain purchases and protection for lost luggage. These guarantees are not included in the table, since the total outstanding amount of the guarantees and Citi’s maximum exposure to loss cannot be quantified. The protection is limited to certain types of purchases and losses, and it is not possible to quantify the purchases that would qualify for these benefits at any given time. Citi assesses the probability and amount of its potential liability related to these programs based on the extent and nature of its historical loss experience. At September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the actual and estimated losses incurred and the carrying value of Citi’s obligations related to these programs were immaterial.

Other Representation and Warranty Indemnifications

In the normal course of business, Citi provides standard representations and warranties to counterparties in contracts in connection with numerous transactions and also provides indemnifications, including indemnifications that protect the counterparties to the contracts in the event that additional taxes are owed due either to a change in the tax law or an adverse interpretation of the tax law. Counterparties to these transactions provide Citi with comparable indemnifications. While such representations, warranties and indemnifications are essential components of many contractual relationships, they do not represent the underlying business purpose for the transactions. The indemnification clauses are often standard contractual terms related to Citi’s own performance under the terms of a contract and are entered into in the normal course of business based on an assessment that the risk of loss is remote. Often these clauses are intended to ensure that terms of a contract are met at inception. No compensation is received for these standard representations and warranties, and it is not possible to determine their fair value because they rarely, if ever, result in a payment. In many cases, there are no stated or notional amounts included in the indemnification clauses, and the contingencies potentially triggering the obligation to indemnify have not occurred and are not expected to occur. As a result, these indemnifications are not included in the tables above.

Value-Transfer Networks

Citi is a member of, or shareholder in, hundreds of value-transfer networks (VTNs) (payment, clearing and settlement systems as well as exchanges) around the world. As a condition of membership, many of these VTNs require that members stand ready to pay a pro rata share of the losses incurred by the organization due to another member’s default on its obligations. Citi’s potential obligations may be limited to its membership interests in the VTNs, contributions to the VTN’s funds, or, in limited cases, the obligation may be unlimited. The maximum exposure cannot be estimated as this would require an assessment of future claims that have not yet occurred. Citi believes the risk of loss is remote given historical experience with the VTNs. Accordingly, Citi’s participation in VTNs is not reported in the guarantees tables above, and there are no amounts reflected on the Consolidated Balance Sheet as of September 30, 2014 or December 31, 2013 for potential obligations that could arise from Citi’s involvement with VTN associations.

Long-Term Care Insurance Indemnification

In the sale of an insurance subsidiary, the Company provided an indemnification to an insurance company for policyholder claims and other liabilities relating to a book of long-term care (LTC) business (for the entire term of the LTC policies) that is fully reinsured by another insurance company. The reinsurer has funded two trusts with securities whose fair value (approximately $6.1 billion at September 30, 2014, compared to $5.4 billion at December 31, 2013) is designed to cover the insurance company’s statutory liabilities for the LTC policies. The assets in these trusts are evaluated and adjusted periodically to ensure that the fair value of the assets continues to cover the estimated statutory liabilities related to the LTC policies, as those statutory liabilities change over time.

If the reinsurer fails to perform under the reinsurance agreement for any reason, including insolvency, and the assets in the two trusts are insufficient or unavailable to the ceding insurance company, then Citi must indemnify the ceding insurance company for any losses actually incurred in connection with the LTC policies. Since both events would have to occur before Citi would become responsible for any payment to the ceding insurance company pursuant to its indemnification obligation, and the likelihood of such events occurring is currently not probable, there is no liability reflected in the Consolidated Balance Sheet as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013 related to this indemnification. Citi continues to closely monitor its potential exposure under this indemnification obligation.

Carrying Value—Guarantees and Indemnifications

At September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, the total carrying amounts of the liabilities related to the guarantees and indemnifications included in the tables above amounted to approximately $1.8 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. The carrying value of financial and performance guarantees is included in Other liabilities. For loans sold with recourse, the carrying value of the liability is included in Other liabilities.

Futures and over-the-counter derivatives clearing

Citi provides clearing services for clients executing exchange-traded futures and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives contracts with central counterparties (CCPs). Based on all relevant facts and circumstances, Citi has concluded that it acts as an agent for accounting purposes in its role as clearing member for these client transactions. As such, Citi does not reflect the underlying exchange-traded futures or OTC derivatives contracts in its Consolidated Financial Statements. See Note 21 for a discussion of Citi’s derivatives activities that are reflected in its Consolidated Financial Statements.

As a clearing member, Citi collects and remits cash and securities collateral (margin) between its clients and the respective CCP. There are two types of margin: initial margin and variation margin. Where Citi obtains benefits from or controls cash initial margin (e.g., retains an interest spread), cash initial margin collected from clients and remitted to the CCP is reflected within Brokerage Payables (payables to customers) and Brokerage Receivables (receivables from brokers, dealers and clearing organizations), respectively. However, for OTC derivatives contracts where Citi has contractually agreed with the client that (a) Citi will pass through to the client all interest paid by the CCP on cash initial margin; (b) Citi will not utilize its right as clearing member to transform cash margin into other assets; and (c) Citi does not guarantee and is not liable to the client for the performance of the CCP, cash initial margin collected from clients and remitted to the CCP is not reflected on Citi’s Consolidated Balance Sheet. The total amount of cash initial margin collected and remitted in this manner was approximately $3.3 billion and $1.4 billion as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively.

Variation margin due from clients to the respective CCP, or from the CCP to clients, reflects changes in the value of the client’s derivative contracts for each trading day. As a clearing member, Citi is exposed to the risk of non-performance by clients (e.g., failure of a client to post variation margin to the CCP for negative changes in the value of the client’s derivative contracts). In the event of non-performance by a client, Citi would move to close out the client’s positions. The CCP would typically utilize initial margin posted by the client and held by the CCP, with any remaining shortfalls required to be paid by Citi as clearing member. Citi generally holds incremental cash or securities margin posted by the client, which would typically be expected to be sufficient to mitigate Citi’s credit risk in the event the client fails to perform.

As required by ASC 860-30-25-5, securities collateral posted by clients is not recognized on Citi’s Consolidated Balance Sheet.

Collateral

Cash collateral available to Citi to reimburse losses realized under these guarantees and indemnifications amounted to $63 billion and $52 billion at September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively. Securities and other marketable assets held as collateral amounted to $49 billion and $39 billion at September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively. The majority of collateral is held to reimburse losses realized under securities lending indemnifications. Additionally, letters of credit in favor of Citi held as collateral amounted to $3.8 billion and $5.3 billion at September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively. Other property may also be available to Citi to cover losses under certain guarantees and indemnifications; however, the value of such property has not been determined.

Performance risk

Citi evaluates the performance risk of its guarantees based on the assigned referenced counterparty internal or external ratings. Where external ratings are used, investment-grade ratings are considered to be Baa/BBB and above, while anything below is considered non-investment grade. Citi’s internal ratings are in line with the related external rating system. On certain underlying referenced assets or entities, ratings are not available. Such referenced assets are included in the “not rated” category. The maximum potential amount of the future payments related to the outstanding guarantees is determined to be the notional amount of these contracts, which is the par amount of the assets guaranteed.

Presented in the tables below are the maximum potential amounts of future payments that are classified based upon internal and external credit ratings as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013. As previously mentioned, the determination of the maximum potential future payments is based on the notional amount of the guarantees without consideration of possible recoveries under recourse provisions or from collateral held or pledged. As such, Citi believes such amounts bear no relationship to the anticipated losses, if any, on these guarantees.



	Maximum potential amount of future payments
In billions of dollars at September 30, 2014	Investment grade		Non-investment grade		Not rated		Total
Financial standby letters of credit	$	72.4	$	15.4	$	10.0	$	97.8
Performance guarantees	6.9		4.1		0.9		11.9
Derivative instruments deemed to be guarantees	—		—		92.6		92.6
Loans sold with recourse	—		—		0.2		0.2
Securities lending indemnifications	—		—		105.7		105.7
Credit card merchant processing	—		—		86.5		86.5
Custody indemnifications and other	40.8		0.2		—		41.0
Total	$	120.1	$	19.7	$	295.9	$	435.7



	Maximum potential amount of future payments
In billions of dollars at December 31, 2013	Investment grade		Non-investment grade		Not rated		Total
Financial standby letters of credit	$	76.2	$	14.8	$	9.2	$	100.2
Performance guarantees	7.4		3.6		1.5		12.5
Derivative instruments deemed to be guarantees	—		—		67.6		67.6
Loans sold with recourse	—		—		0.3		0.3
Securities lending indemnifications	—		—		79.2		79.2
Credit card merchant processing	—		—		85.9		85.9
Custody indemnifications and other	36.2		0.1		—		36.3
Total	$	119.8	$	18.5	$	243.7	$	382.0

Credit Commitments and Lines of Credit

The table below summarizes Citigroup’s credit commitments as of September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013:



In millions of dollars	U.S.		Outside of U.S.		September 30, 2014		December 31, 2013
Commercial and similar letters of credit	$	1,537	$	5,587	$	7,124	$	7,341
One- to four-family residential mortgages	2,281		2,601		4,882		4,946
Revolving open-end loans secured by one- to four-family residential properties	13,616		2,999		16,615		16,781
Commercial real estate, construction and land development	7,308		1,132		8,440		8,001
Credit card lines	493,404		124,578		617,982		641,111
Commercial and other consumer loan commitments	161,325		97,426		258,751		225,795
Other commitments and contingencies	1,257		8,045		9,302		7,863
Total	$	680,728	$	242,368	$	923,096	$	911,838

The majority of unused commitments are contingent upon customers’ maintaining specific credit standards.

Commercial commitments generally have floating interest rates and fixed expiration dates and may require payment of fees. Such fees (net of certain direct costs) are deferred and, upon exercise of the commitment, amortized over the life of the loan or, if exercise is deemed remote, amortized over the commitment period.

Commercial and similar letters of credit

A commercial letter of credit is an instrument by which Citigroup substitutes its credit for that of a customer to enable the customer to finance the purchase of goods or to incur other commitments. Citigroup issues a letter on behalf of its client to a supplier and agrees to pay the supplier upon presentation of documentary evidence that the supplier has performed in accordance with the terms of the letter of credit. When a letter of credit is drawn, the customer is then required to reimburse Citigroup.

One- to four-family residential mortgages

A one- to four-family residential mortgage commitment is a written confirmation from Citigroup to a seller of a property that the bank will advance the specified sums enabling the buyer to complete the purchase.

Revolving open-end loans secured by one- to four-family

residential properties

Revolving open-end loans secured by one- to four-family residential properties are essentially home equity lines of credit. A home equity line of credit is a loan secured by a primary residence or second home to the extent of the excess of fair market value over the debt outstanding for the first mortgage.

Commercial real estate, construction and land development

Commercial real estate, construction and land development include unused portions of commitments to extend credit for the purpose of financing commercial and multifamily residential properties as well as land development projects.

Both secured-by-real-estate and unsecured commitments are included in this line, as well as undistributed loan proceeds, where there is an obligation to advance for construction progress payments. However, this line only includes those extensions of credit that, once funded, will be classified as Total loans, net on the Consolidated Balance Sheet.

Credit card lines

Citigroup provides credit to customers by issuing credit cards. The credit card lines are cancellable by providing notice to the cardholder or without such notice as permitted by local law.

Commercial and other consumer loan commitments

Commercial and other consumer loan commitments include overdraft and liquidity facilities, as well as commercial commitments to make or purchase loans, to purchase third-party receivables, to provide note issuance or revolving underwriting facilities and to invest in the form of equity. Amounts include $56 billion and $58 billion with an original maturity of less than one year at September 30, 2014 and December 31, 2013, respectively.

In addition, included in this line item are highly leveraged financing commitments, which are agreements that provide funding to a borrower with higher levels of debt (measured by the ratio of debt capital to equity capital of the borrower) than is generally considered normal for other companies. This type of financing is commonly employed in corporate acquisitions, management buy-outs and similar transactions.

Other commitments and contingencies

Other commitments and contingencies include committed or unsettled regular-way reverse repurchase agreements and all other transactions related to commitments and contingencies not reported on the lines above.