NEW YORK (AP) — Citigroup Inc. suffered its fourth straight quarterly loss and cut another 11,000 jobs, drubbed again by the relentless downturn in housing and turmoil in the financial markets.

The New York-based bank said yesterday it lost $2.8 billion, or 60 cents per share, in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $2.2 billion, or 44 cents per share, a year ago. The deficit for the June-to-September period brings Citi's total losses over the past 12 months to $20.2 billion.

The shortfall for the quarter was narrower than anticipated. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 70 cents per share.

But the results were hardly reassuring. Citi wrote down $4.4 billion in investments, plus another $612 million from a settlement related to auction-rate securities; recorded $4.9 billion in credit losses; and took a $3.9 billion charge to boost reserves. The bank has written down the value of its investments tied to souring mortgages and other bad debt by some $51 billion since this time last year.

Shares fell $1.45, or 9 percent, to $14.78 in morning trading.

The frailty of the financial system has led the government to pledge $25 billion to each of the big four US banks — Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. Of these four institutions, Citi appears to be on the shakiest footing. It is the only one to have posted quarterly losses over the past year, and it is shrinking while its peers are growing.

With $2.05 trillion in total assets now, Citigroup has officially forfeited the title of largest bank by assets, falling behind JPMorgan Chase's $2.25 trillion in total assets. Bank of America currently has $1.91 trillion in assets, and will have more when it completes its buyout of Merrill Lynch, which yesterday reported a $5.2 billion loss. Wells Fargo has assets of $622 billion ahead of its acquisition of Wachovia Corp.