The UK's banking and financial regulators announced on Wednesday that they have fined Citibank more than £61.6 million ($78.5 million) due to deficiencies in its trading systems and controls.
This is one of the largest fines imposed by the UK for breaches of control measures since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) stated in a press release that issues with Citigroup Global Markets Limited (CGML) had "materialized into trading incidents," including an event in May 2022 when an "experienced trader" entered an order incorrectly, resulting in an erroneous execution on European exchanges and a $1.4 billion loss.
The PRA said, “The deficiencies in CGML’s trading controls led to the event, particularly the lack of certain preventive hard measures and the miscalibration of other control measures.”
The regulators noted that Citi had received multiple "regulatory communications" from the Prudential Regulation Authority to make improvements, but the issues persisted.
Due to failures in Citi’s trading systems and controls between April 1, 2018, and May 31, 2022, the PRA fined Citi £33.88 million. After Citi agreed to settle the issue, the fine was reduced by 30%.
The Financial Conduct Authority, in the same statement, said it had fined Citigroup £27.76 million following an investigation into similar incidents.
Sam Woods, CEO of the PRA and Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation at the Bank of England, stated, “Firms engaged in trading must have effective controls to manage the risks involved.” He added, “CGML failed to meet our expected standards in this regard, leading to today’s fines.”
Citi spokesperson Victoria Durman said the bank is "pleased to have resolved the issue from more than two years ago, which was caused by an individual error that was identified and corrected within minutes.”
She added via email, “We took immediate steps to strengthen our systems and controls and remain committed to ensuring full regulatory compliance.”
