LONDON (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc. Chairman Win Bischoff said that banks may be emerging from a trough after losses caused by the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market.

"In relation to the sub-prime area, we're through the worst," Bischoff said at the London Gateway 2008 conference yesterday. "I do not believe that there will be further very large markdowns in relation to that side of the business."

Citigroup, the largest US bank, said yesterday that it will stop offering some home and personal loans in the UK and will fire 700 workers in the country. The New York-based lender has booked more than $40 billion of credit losses and write-downs since the sub-prime mortgage market collapsed.

"We're still going to face a very challenging time in 2008, though as far as the sub-prime part, we're very close to the bottom," Bischoff said. "The economies are not in great shape and there will be losses which banks will suffer from their normal operations. We don't yet know how wide or deep the ultimate losses will be for financial institutions."

Bischoff was speaking at a conference organised by British American Business, which represents more than 700 companies operating in the UK and the US.

His comments chime with those of billionaire investor George Soros, who said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 today that the "acute phase" of the global credit crisis is over. He predicted the fallout will lead to recessions in the UK and the US.

Oppenheimer & Co. analysts Meredith Whitney, Kaimon Chung and Joseph Mack wrote in a note yesterday that the credit crisis will extend into and even beyond 2009. They predict banks will write off more than $170 billion of additional reserves by the end of the year.

Citigroup received funding from sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Singapore after record mortgage losses wiped out half the company's market value and led to the departure of chief executive officer Charles Prince.

"Financial institutions had to take dramatic and quick action to strengthen their balance sheets and sovereign wealth funds were important sources of capital to that end," Bischoff said yesterday. "I say, from personal experience, not only were they important and able to act quickly, they were very good at doing the due diligence."

Bischoff rejected criticism that the government-backed investors didn't pay enough for shares in the bank.