U.S. banking regulators have fined Citigroup $136 million for "insufficient progress" in addressing the data management issues identified in 2020, and have demanded the bank prove it has allocated sufficient resources to tackle these problems.
The joint enforcement action by the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) concerns Citigroup's efforts to rectify data management issues and implement controls to manage ongoing risks, the Fed said on Wednesday.
These fines are the latest blow to CEO Jane Fraser, who is grappling with the bank's regulatory failures and streamlining its structure after laying off thousands of employees.
In 2020, regulators fined Citigroup $400 million for "persistent deficiencies" in handling various risk management and internal control issues, including data quality management.
Citigroup agreed to a comprehensive plan to fix its data failures, but a Fed inspection last year found the bank still had deficiencies and that progress was insufficient, the Fed said.
"Citigroup violated the 2020 order, failing to meet milestones as planned," the Fed said on Wednesday.
The OCC also required the bank to implement new quarterly processes to ensure it allocates sufficient resources to meet milestones, Fraser said in a memo to employees seen by Reuters.
"Setbacks like today are obvious, and I know they can be disappointing," Fraser wrote, "but they absolutely must not distract from the work we are doing in every corner of the bank... Such efforts of this scale and importance are undoubtedly challenging."
