{"id":11230,"date":"2023-11-08T17:26:24","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T17:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/business\/citibank-fined-26-million-for-treating-armenian-americans-like-criminals-us-agency-says\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T17:26:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T17:26:27","slug":"citibank-fined-26-million-for-treating-armenian-americans-like-criminals-us-agency-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230","title":{"rendered":"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal regulator alleged on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that from at least 2015 through 2021,\u00a0Citi \u201ctargeted\u201d\u00a0retail services credit card applicants whom employees associated with Armenian national origin.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCiti treated Armenian Americans as criminals who were likely to commit fraud,\u201d the CFPB alleged.\n <\/p>\n

\n Citi applied more stringent criteria to suspected Armenian Americans\u2019 applications, including \u201cdenying them outright,\u201d placing blocks on the accounts and requiring additional information, according to the regulator.\n <\/p>\n

\n The CFPB said Citi targeted applicants with last names ending in \u201c-ian\u201d and \u201c-yan\u201d as well as applicants in and around Glendale, California, which is home to a large Armenian American population.\n <\/p>\n

\n Regulators painted the picture of an orchestrated effort by Citi to conceal the alleged discrimination, including by allegedly falsifying documents.\n <\/p>\n

\n Citi is a major issuer of store credit cards, including retail cards for Home Depot, Best Buy and other chains.\n <\/p>\n

\n To punish Citi for the alleged discrimination, the CFPB ordered the bank to pay $25.9 million in fines and consumer redress. Those penalties include a $24.5 million fine to the CFPB\u2019s victims relief fund.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRegrettably, in trying to thwart a well-documented Armenian fraud ring operating in certain parts of California, a few employees took impermissible actions,\u201d Citi spokesperson Karen Kearns said in a statement to CNN. \u201cWhile we prioritize protecting our bank and our customers from fraud, it is unacceptable to base credit decisions on national origin.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The Citi spokesperson added that after an internal investigation, the bank took \u201cappropriate actions\u201d against those involved and imposed steps to prevent this from happening again.\u201dWe sincerely apologize to any applicant who was evaluated unfairly by the small number of employees who circumvented our fraud detection protocols,\u201d the Citi spokesperson said.\n <\/p>\n

\n According to the CFPB, Citi supervisors \u201cconspired to hide the discrimination\u201d by telling employees not to discuss these practices in writing or on recorded phone lines.\n <\/p>\n

\n The bank then \u201chid\u201d the discrimination by lying to consumers, giving them \u201cfalse reasons\u201d for credit denials, the CFPB said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCiti stereotyped Armenians as prone to crime and fraud,\u201d CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. \u201cCiti illegally fabricated documents to cover up its discrimination.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, it is illegal to intentionally deny credit to groups of people based on national origin.\n <\/p>\n

\n During a call with reporters on Wednesday, Chopra said the people hurt thought they would be treated fairly by banks.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMany Armenians have arrived in the US both because of opportunity but also because of physical dangers back home,\u201d Chopra said, noting Armenia was a satellite of the Soviet Union before its collapse. \u201cThose who immigrated to the United States should not be subjected to illegal discrimination on the basis of their national origin.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The CFPB noted that Citi has a history of recently violating consumer financial protection laws. It paid $335 million in 2018 to 1.75 million consumer credit card holders for allegedly violating the Truth in Lending Act. In 2015, Citi paid almost $750 million for \u201cdeceptive and unfair practices\u201d linked to overcharging credit card customers.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am concerned about Citi\u2019s longstanding problems when it comes to managing its sprawling lines of businesses. The public has provided Citi with very large bailouts because of its past management failures,\u201d Chopra said. \u201cIt is unfair for consumers to continue paying the price.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Citi CEO Jane Fraser is scheduled to testify before Congress on December 6 as part of the Senate Banking Committee\u2019s big bank oversight hearing.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\nCitibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says | inFundPros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says | inFundPros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"inFundPros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-08T17:26:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-08T17:26:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/gettyimages-1251777425.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Press Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Press Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Press Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff\"},\"headline\":\"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-08T17:26:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-08T17:26:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230\"},\"wordCount\":605,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230\",\"name\":\"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says | inFundPros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-08T17:26:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-08T17:26:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/\",\"name\":\"Fintech Advance\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance and Tech News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Fintech Advance\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png\",\"width\":409,\"height\":70,\"caption\":\"Fintech Advance\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff\",\"name\":\"Press Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Press Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says | inFundPros","description":"Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says | inFundPros","og_description":"Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal","og_url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230","og_site_name":"inFundPros","article_published_time":"2023-11-08T17:26:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-08T17:26:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/gettyimages-1251777425.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Press Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Press Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230"},"author":{"name":"Press Room","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff"},"headline":"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says","datePublished":"2023-11-08T17:26:24+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-08T17:26:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230"},"wordCount":605,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230","name":"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says | inFundPros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-11-08T17:26:24+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-08T17:26:27+00:00","description":"Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=11230#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Citibank fined $26 million for \u2018treating Armenian Americans like criminals,\u2019 US agency says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/","name":"Fintech Advance","description":"Latest Finance and Tech News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization","name":"Fintech Advance","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png","width":409,"height":70,"caption":"Fintech Advance"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff","name":"Press Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png","caption":"Press Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/infundpros.com"],"url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11232,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11230\/revisions\/11232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}