Citi, Merrill set for more writedowns

NEW YORK: Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS may post further writedowns of $10 billion on their debt holdings after the two biggest bond insurers were stripped of their AAA rankings, according to Oppenheimer & Co analyst Meredith Whitney.

MBIA and Ambac Financial Group, the world���s largest bond insurers, had their AAA financial strength rankings reduced by Standard & Poor���s on June 5, taking with them the ratings on more than $1 trillion of securities they guaranteed. Whitney rates both Citigroup and Merrill at ���underperform.������