Citigroup Fined $136 Mln Over Internal Control Issues

(RTTNews) - Government regulators have issued around $135.6 million fine in separate but related actions against Citigroup Inc. for failing to resolve longstanding internal control and risk issues.

The Federal Reserve Board has fined the banking major $60.6 million for violating the Board's 2020 enforcement action. In a related activity, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or OCC amended its 2020 Cease and Desist Order against Citibank, and also issued a $75 million civil money penalty based on the bank's violations.

Citigroup was fined $400 million in 2020 in a consent order related to its risk and control issues by the regulators, who now said the bank had failed to meet its obligations stemming from the order.

Responding to the latest regulatory actions in connection with its 2020 Consent Orders, Citi CEO Jane Fraser acknowledged that there are areas where the firm has not made progress quickly enough, such as in data quality management. This, despite making good progress in simplifying the business and addressing Consent Orders.

Fraser said, "We've intensified our focus and increased our investment in those areas over the last several months. We will get these areas where they need to be, as we have done in other areas of the Transformation. As we've said from the beginning of this multi-year effort, we're committed to spending what is necessary to address our consent orders, as our agreement with the OCC demonstrates. ...We've always said that progress wouldn't be linear, and we have no doubt that we will be successful in getting our firm where it needs to be in terms of our Transformation."

On October 7, 2020, Citigroup had consented to an Order to Cease and Desist issued by the Board of Governors based on significant ongoing deficiencies in implementation and execution of various areas of risk management and internal controls. These included data quality management and regulatory reporting, compliance risk management, capital planning, and liquidity risk management.

The 2020 Order issued against Citibank, N.A, Sioux Falls, South Dakota required the bank to submit a plan to enhance its data quality management program, among other things.

On October 7, 2020, Citibank also consented to the issuance of a Consent Order by the OCC to remedy deficiencies in its risk management, internal controls, and data governance and to the assessment of a $400 million civil money penalty.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2023 probe found that Citigroup had ongoing deficiencies in data quality management and ineffective compensating controls to mitigate associated risks. It was also found that Citigroup's progress in executing its remediation efforts related to the 2020 Order has not been adequate.

In a statement, Federal Reserve now noted that Citigroup has made insufficient progress remediating its problems with data quality management and failed to implement compensating controls to manage its ongoing risk.

As a result of the deficiencies, Citigroup violated the 2020 Order through delays in completing milestones included in its approved plan to enhance its data quality management program and through inadequate measures for managing and controlling its data quality risks until the plan is implemented in full.

The Board continues to monitor Citigroup's actions to comply with the 2020 action, which remains in effect.

The company has agreed to take steps to correct the violations and to comply with its obligations under the 2020 Order.

Further, the OCC noted that its amendment is based on the bank's failure to meet remediation milestones and make sufficient and sustainable progress towards compliance with the 2020 Order. It was issued to ensure Citibank prioritizes the remediation work, including through the allocation of sufficient resources.

The amendment supplements but does not replace the 2020 Order, which remains in full force and effect.

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said, "Citibank must see through its transformation and fully address in a timely manner its longstanding deficiencies. While the bank's board and management have made meaningful progress overall, including taking necessary steps to simplify the bank, certain persistent weaknesses remain, in particular with regard to data. Today's amendment requires the bank to refocus its efforts on taking necessary corrective actions and ensuring appropriate resources are allocated for this purpose."

In similar incidents, the Financial Conduct Authority or FCA in late May fined Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. GBP 27.77 million for failures in systems and controls.

The Prudential Regulation Authority or PRA also imposed a financial penalty of GBP 33.89 million on Citigroup Global Markets following its own investigation.