JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) Purchases 3,800 Real Estate Loans from Citibank (NYSE: C)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) announced that it would be purchasing 3,800 multi-family real-estate and commercial real-estate loans from Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C), a total loan portfolio worth more than $3.5 billion.

Most of the notes are multifamily real estate loans for properties located in New York, California, and Illinois. The bank said that the loan portfolio is madeentirely up of performing loans which have had strong credit performance.

The sale by Citigroup is part of an ongoing effort from the bank to divest itself of holdings which it considers to be “non-core” inside of its Citi Holdings division. The deal will reduce the unit’s assets by $3.5 billion. Citigroup said that it continues to steadily reduce its assets in Citi Holdings and that the unit now makes up less than 25% of the company’s balance sheets.

Citigroup Inc. (Citigroup) is a global diversified financial services holding company. The Company provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a range of financial products and services. As of December 31, 2009, Citigroup had approximately 200 million customer accounts and did business in more than 140 countries.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan Chase) is a financial holding company. JPMorgan Chase’s principal bank subsidiaries are JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association (JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.), a national banking association with United States branches in 23 states, and Chase Bank USA, National Association (Chase Bank USA, N.A.), a national banking association that is the Firm’s credit card-issuing bank.

Shares of Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) traded down 1.13% hitting $3.95 during mid-day trading on Wednesday. Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) traded down 1.28% hitting $38.67 during mid-day trading on Wednesday.