Lunchtime Links: Citigroup keeps up wave of optimism

If investment banking was supposed to be dead, then it's getting the George Romero treatment this week.

Citigroup is the latest to put its head above the parapet today, and has posted net income of $1.6bn for Q1 - its best performance since Q2 2007, and first profit for five consecutive quarters. And, you've guessed it, the investment banking division was the main driver.

But before the champagne corks start popping, it's worth noting that 13,000 people have been laid off since the end of 2008 - which marks a 65,000 reduction since peak levels. And operating expenses have been reduced by 23% by what it describes as "benefits from on-going re-engineering efforts".

There's also the small matter of the $2.5bn gain on decreasing the market value of its own debt, which flatters the figures somewhat. Oh, and the $7.3bn in losses on loans and the $2.7bn in reserves to protect against further souring debts.

"I witnessed trusting and naive provincial building society executives and non-executives, who had no real understanding of securitisation or structured finance or any other aspect of the workings of global capital markets, being eaten alive by cynical, rapacious and short-termist investment bankers." (Financial Times)

JPMorgan eager to shed government shackles (Reuters)

But the Treasury could keep a tight hold on them anyway (Bloomberg)

SocGen creates 40 investment banking jobs for Asia push (Financial Times)

Pali International expanding sales and research team (Financial News)

Good first quarter results 'are not one offs' ( Telegraph)

It was a mistake to allow Lehman to fail (Bloomberg)

The UK is turning a corner, says soon-to-be MPC member (Times)

"The free-fall in the global economy may be starting to abate, with a recovery emerging in 2010, but this depends crucially on the right policies being adopted today." ( Telegraph)

Bank of America could split top roles (Financial News)

Stanford employees encouraged to send get-well-soon flowers (Dealbreaker)

Investment banking salaries vs McDonalds (Mergers & Inquisitions)

There's no hiding from the JPM heavies (FT Alphaville)