Citigroup (C) which has seen its shares lose about 36% of their value this year as a result of the subprime crisis, is now beginning to see problems in its credit card portfolio.

The bank, which is the nation’s largest credit card issuer, in a recent SEC filing, reported that it lost one hundred and seventy six million dollars from securitizing its credit card loans. In the filing, the bank reported that it was not able to securitize as much of its credit card portfolio as it would like and additionally, it was forced to write down nine billion dollars worth of securitized credit card debt that it currently holds.

This was the first loss in three years that the bank experienced while trying to securitize credit card debt and with the economy getting weaker and weaker, resulting in more financial pressure on the consumer, Citigroup (C) and other credit card issuers will continue to see mounting problems with their credit card business.

With financial stocks having run up again last week, traders might be able to undertake profitable trades shorting them.

 
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