LET'S NOT FORGET WHO CAME UP WITH THE IDEA

Citigroup may give a substantial share of its common stock to the U.S. government in return for more capital and before the wingnuts start lying by saying that Citi was forced into this, let's be clear about where the idea came from:

U.S. Eyes Large Stake in Citi

Citigroup is in talks with federal officials that could result in the U.S. government substantially expanding its ownership of the struggling bank, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Wall Street Journal
FOXNews.com
Sunday, February 22, 2009

Citigroup Inc. is in talks with federal officials that could result in the U.S. government substantially expanding its ownership of the struggling bank, according to people familiar with the situation.

While the discussions could fall apart, the government could wind up holding as much as 40% of Citigroup's common stock. Bank executives hope the stake will be closer to 25%, these people said.

Any such move would give federal officials far greater influence over one of the world's largest financial institutions. Citigroup has proposed the plan to its regulators.

According to the WSJ, this may just be another gimmick that address the underlying problem of toxic assets:

U.S. Eyes Large Stake in Citi
Taxpayers Could Own Up to 40% of Bank's Common Stock, Diluting Value of Shares
FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Citigroup officials hope to persuade private investors that have bought preferred shares -- such as the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority -- to follow the government's lead in converting some of those stakes into common stock, according to people familiar with the matter. That would further bolster an obscure but increasingly pivotal measure of banks' capital known as "tangible common equity," or TCE.

The TCE measurement, one of several gauges of a bank's financial strength, gives weight to common shares -- thus the interest in converting preferred shares to common stock.

...bank regulators this week will start performing their battery of stress tests at the nation's largest banks as part of the Obama administration's industry-bailout plan. As part of those tests, the Federal Reserve is expected to dwell on the TCE measurement as a gauge of bank health, according to people familiar with the matter.

Until recently, TCE -- essentially a gauge of what common shareholders would get if an institution were dissolved -- has been one of the less prominent ways to measure a bank's vigor. TCE is also among the most conservative measures of financial health.

Bankers and regulators generally prefer to use what is known as "Tier 1" ratio of a bank's capital adequacy. It takes into account equity other than common stock. By Tier 1 measurements, most big banks, including Citigroup, appear healthy. Citigroup's Tier 1 ratio is 11.8%, well above the level needed to be classified as well-capitalized.

By contrast, most banks' TCE ratios indicate severe weakness. Citigroup's TCE ratio stood at about 1.5% of assets at Dec. 31, well below the 3% level that investors regard as safe.

The regulators' new focus on TCE represents an important shift. The government's recent injections into hundreds of institutions were predicated on the idea that Tier 1 was key. Because the investments weren't in the form of common stock, they didn't affect the companies' TCE ratios.