EU banks set to wipe out profits, Citi says

Europe's investment banks will probably see profit wiped out by restructuring costs in the fourth quarter as they make changes started by their U.S. competitors years earlier, according to Citigroup Inc.

Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS Group AG will post losses for the three months through December, while Barclays Plc will be "broadly break-even," Citigroup's Andrew Coombs and Nicholas Herman wrote in a report on Wednesday.

Europe's biggest securities firms are implementing reforms taken by many of their U.S. competitors shortly after the 2008 financial crisis. As the continent's economies grow more slowly than the U. S., bank efforts to cut costs have taken on a new urgency following a revenue slump caused by volatile global markets. "We expect the Europeans to underperform due to structural trends and revenue attrition on restructuring," the Citigroup analysts wrote.