Citigroup Inc. is being fined US$135.6 million by U.S. banking regulators for failing to make enough progress at improving its internal controls, as required in a previous enforcement action.
In a pair of related actions, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board fined the bank, respectively, US$75 million and US$60.6 million for violating the terms of compliance orders from the regulators in 2020.
“Citigroup has made insufficient progress remediating its problems with data quality management and failed to implement compensating controls to manage its ongoing risk,” the Fed said in a release.
The bank consented to the regulators’ orders.
Alongside the new penalty, the OCC amended its 2020 order against the bank, which sought to address weaknesses in risk management, data governance and internal controls. The amendment is based on “the bank’s failure to meet remediation milestones and make sufficient and sustainable progress towards compliance with the 2020 order,” a release said.
The amendment supplements but does not replace the 2020 order, which remains in effect, it said.
“Citibank must see through its transformation and fully address in a timely manner its longstanding deficiencies,” said acting comptroller of the currency, Michael Hsu, in the release.
“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,” he said. “Today’s amendment requires the bank to refocus its efforts on taking necessary corrective actions and ensuring appropriate resources are allocated for this purpose.”