Bank of England hands Citi record fine over UK reporting breaches

• November 27 2019
• http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-observer/bank-of-england-hands-citi-record-fine-over-uk-reporting-breaches_180724

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The Bank of England yesterday said it has handed US banking giant Citigroup a record fine of almost £44 million (US$57 million) for “serious and widespread” reporting breaches.

The British central bank said in a statement that its Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) division has given the penalty to Citigroup for “failings in their regulatory reporting governance and controls”.

“The PRA has imposed a combined financial penalty on Citigroup Global Markets Limited (CGML), Citibank NA London branch (CBNA London) and Citibank Europe Plc UK branch (CEP UK) of £43.9 million for failings in relation to their internal controls and governance arrangements underpinning compliance with PRA regulatory reporting requirements,” the watchdog said.

The PRA added that Citigroup's UK reporting framework was not designed, implemented or operating effectively between June 2014 and December 2018, or for parts of that period.

“This led to them failing to submit complete and accurate regulatory returns to the PRA,” it added.

“While Citi remained in surplus to its liquidity and capital requirements at all times, the failings persisted over a significant length of time and were serious and widespread in nature.

“They led to significant errors in the firms' returns, including six substantive matters, which had a material or potentially material impact on the returns.