So far, the scourge of the third-quarter bank results has been a troubling lack of top line growth--a vexing problem with no easy fix.

Citigroup became the latest bank to succumb to this malady. Revenues came in at $20.8 billion, slightly up from the prior year and previous quarter. Citigroup reported a rosy net income of $1.23 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2011, which was 74 percent higher than the year ago period and 13 percent above the second quarter. That beat analysts' expectations handily.

But the overall picture was made much rosier by a "credit valuation adjustment," a netted measure of perceived measure of bank credit riskiness measured against counterparties that added nearly $2 billion to the top line. Excluding this CVA, third quarter revenues would have been $18.9 billion, 8 percent below the year ago quarter and 8 percent below the second quarter 2011. The CVA also added $0.39 per share to the bottom line. JPMorgan Chase also benefited from this sort of adjustment but they prefer to refer to it as a debit valuation adjustment that was partially offset by a credit valuation adjustment.

Citicorp revenues, excluding the CVA, reflected lower revenues in securities and banking that more than offset higher revenues in Regional Consumer Banking. International banking powered the regional banking group's performance. Citi Holdings revenues declined 27 percent from the prior year, reflecting a 31 percent decline in Citi Holdings assets.

The company also benefited from a release of loan loss reserves of $1.4 billion, which was down from $2 billion a year ago. All in all, there's not a lot here to break with the downward trend of the stock prices since the reverse split in May, though credit quality improved and loan growth was noticeable.  

For more:
- here's the release

Related articles:
Earnings reports to reflect weakness, lack of innovation   
Needed in the bank industry: A revenue visionary