WASHINGTON - The economy continued to take its toll on the banking industry in the final quarter of 2008 as two of the nation's largest banks each posted losses in the billions.

Today, Citigroup reported losses of $8.29 billion and Bank of America reported a $1.79 billion loss.

Citigroup also announced plans to split the company into two, one part focusing on banking and the other focusing on consumer finance and asset management. It is a change of strategy from the company's earlier approach of trying to be what some specialists call a "financial supermarket."

Its net loss for all of 2008 was $18.72 billion.

In November, the government infused $45 billion of capital into the company.

Bank of America fared better. It reported a profit for 2008 of $4 billion.

But the bank had problems in the fourth quarter in part because of costs involved in its purchase of Merrill Lynch, which had a net loss of $15.3 billion in the fourth quarter.

The Treasury Department today announced it was infusing $20 billion of new capital into the bank.

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