Citigroup Inc's third-quarter expenses are running "slightly higher" than three months ago because of efforts to prove to regulators that its risk and balance sheet management is good enough to allow more spending for dividends and share buybacks, the bank's chief financial officer said on Monday. John Gerspach told an investor conference the company is "well on the way to making needed changes" in its capital planning for the Federal Reserve's next stress test early next year. In March, the Fed Reserve rejected Citigroup's last capital plan in a surprising rebuke for Chief Executive Officer Mike Corbat. Gerspach acknowledged that the company had been wrongly confident in that plan. He said the company had 'a false set of understanding' of Fed requirements going into that test and has since been working constantly to improve its management. Gerspach, in the first comments on third-quarter trading results from a major Wall Street executive, also said equity and fixed income market
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