In the first earnings report of any young management regime, nothing succeeds like failure. Get all the bad stuff out of the way while the responsibility can be hung on the old regime, and shove any good stuff into the future, where success will belong to the new leaders. By this measure, Michael Corbat, Citigroup’s new chief executive, presented a reasonably satisfactory set of fourth-quarter numbers.

The bank reported earnings per share of $0.69, excluding provisions for job cuts and changes to the market value of Citi’s own debt. That was higher than a year ago, but below analysts’ expectations. That is because Citi’s quarterly expenses included about $1.3bn in charges related to legal and other expenses. About $300m of that stems from a settlement with regulators over allegedly faulty foreclosure practices. The remaining $1bn has something to do with “various US consumer?.?.?.?issues”.

Want more detail? Too bad. Citi also released fewer loan-loss reserves than it had in the year ago period – just $86m versus $1.5bn. Management appears to be taking a cautious attitude, relative to competitors, on the sustainability of the US housing rebound, and are holding on to mortgage-loan reserves. Some critics have questioned whether banks have been releasing reserves too aggressively to flatter their results; Mr Corbat may be taking the opposite tack, leaving the cookie jar full for later quarters that have his stamp on them.