Mr. Chuck Prince, CEO of Citigroup (NYSE: C) must fell like he is snake bit. After two years of being attacked for not containing costs, in the last two quarters there has been real evidence that expenses are locked down.

Citi's stock performance was particularly poor compared with cross-town rival JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM). From August 2005 through early 2007, JPM rose 50% to Citi's 25%. But, as Prince & Co. began to improve operational statistics, that comparison improved. Before the markets got upset about the credit crunch, both bank's shares were up between 10% and 15% for the year. They both dropped about 7% over the last month, nowhere near as bad as Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) or Lehman (NYSE: LEH).

All of that may have ended late last week. The Financial Times discovered that Citi "had lost more than $500 million in credit business in recent weeks." The British paper goes further to say "the losses will undermine his efforts to restore investor confidence in the world's largest financial services company."

Indeed.

As the weekend progressed, the news moved around the financial press. MarketWatch put the losses at $700 million. The financial website points out that this does not include potential loses from leverage buy-out loans.

The last time Citi had problems, investors wanted Prince out. There will probably be more of that now. But, if Citi's competitors show up with similar problems in the next month, everyone's job may be saved. All of the large financial institutions will have overextended themselves and paid the price.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.