IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Writedown warning

US banks including Citigroup Inc may post about $44 billion in writedowns and charges on bad loans in the fourth quarter, Oppenheimer & Co's Meredith Whitney said.

Accounting rule changes on how some financial assets are valued may also trigger an extra $25 billion in bad-loan provisions over the next 12 months, New York-based Whitney wrote in a note yesterday.