People walk past the CitiBank location in Manhattan on March 01, 2024 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
LONDON – British regulators on Wednesday imposed fines totaling 61.6 million pounds ($79 million) on US investment bank Citi over failures in trading systems and controls.
The fines were issued by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, whose investigation focused on the period between 1 April 2018 and 31 May 2022. Citi qualified for a 30% reduction in the penalty amount after agreeing to the resolution. Subject.
“Firms involved in trading must have effective controls in place in order to manage the risks involved.” CGML [Citigroup Global Markets Limited] “It failed to meet the standards we expect in this area, resulting in today’s fine,” Sam Woods, deputy governor for prudential regulation and chief executive of the PRA, said. He said in a statement on Wednesday.
Regulators said some system and oversight issues persisted during the investigation period and led to trading incidents, such as so-called trading blunders. The main incident highlighted occurred on May 2, 2022, when an experienced trader incorrectly entered an order, resulting in $1.4 billion being “inadvertently” executed on European exchanges.
“Deficiencies in CGML’s trading controls contributed to this incident, in particular the absence of certain safeguard blocks and inappropriate calibration of other controls,” the statement read.
In a statement to CNBC, a Citi spokesperson said the bank was happy to resolve the issue more than two years ago, “which arose from an individual error that was identified and corrected within minutes.”
“We immediately took steps to strengthen our systems and controls, and we remain committed to ensuring full regulatory compliance.” The speaker said.