Citigroup Ordered to pay $770 million over Credit Card Practices
Citibank, Citigroup Inc’s consumer bank has been ordered to pay $700 million in relief to borrowers for illegal credit card practices. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB), an agency authorized under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to reign in Wall Street, has been cracking down in recent years on credit card companies offering payment protection, credit score tracking and other add-on products. Citi will also pay civil penalties of $35 million each to the consumer finance watchdog and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The settlement is the CFPB’s tenth such case, a CFPB spokesman said on yesterday. “They (the CFPB) are just marching through the industry,” FBR & Co financial policy analyst Edward Mills told Reuters. “The CFPB loves to have big numbers like this, especially when the largest percentage of the fine goes back to customers because there’s a lot of (political) push-back about the cost of the CFPB and the way they’re funded.”
Other major U.S. banks under that have been fined over credit card misconduct include JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp.
The experienced securities litigation attorneys at Colling Gilbert Wright have litigated and resolved hundreds of FINRA arbitration claims over questionable Wall Street practices. If you believe you lost money due to negligence or fraud on the part of your FINRA registered broker dealer, please contact us for a free case evaluation.