How Citigroup Inc. (C) Makes Its Money

For the first quarter, these lines of business generated $7 billion in revenue for Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), making it the bank’s second highest revenue generator. In comparison, JPMorgan made $10.1 billion in the first quarter from corporate and investment banking.

3. Transaction services
Citi Transaction Services provides cash management, trade, securities, and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions, governments, and public sector organizations around the globe. Put simply, transaction services help people and businesses move their money around.

For the first quarter, these services generated $2.6 billion in revenue, making it Citi’s third-biggest revenue generator.

4. Citi Holdings
This is Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)’s “bad bank,” where the superbank dumped the most toxic of its assets after the financial crisis. Citi Holdings has at times been less a revenue generator than a loss generator for Citigroup, but for the first quarter, it posted a net revenue gain of $901 million.

They don’t call it a superbank for nothing
All of the numbers you see above come from a total of the following four geographical divisions:

1. North America
2. EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa)
3. Latin America
4. Asia

Citi is as big as it is because it has its hands in a little bit of everything, in almost every corner of the globe. This gives the bank a lot of potential to make money, and also a lot of potential to lose focus, make mistakes, and lose money — which Citi decidedly did in the run-up to the financial crisis.

Now you have a starting point for evaluating Citigroup as an investment. Stay tuned for the next installment in this series: “How Profitable Is Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C)?” In it, we’ll find out how Citi turns this revenue into profit: a subject near and dear to the heart of every investor.

The article How Citigroup Makes Its Money originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor John Grgurich owns shares of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. Follow John’s dispatches from the bleeding heart of capitalism on Twitter @TMFGrgurich. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase.

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