Citigroup Inc. the third largest lender in the U.S. must submit its plans to the Federal Reserve showing how it has improved its safeguards against money laundering.
U.S. regulators ordered the bank, based in New York, to explain the procedures it has put in place improving its compliance with anti-money laundering policies and the Bank Secrecy Act said the Federal Reserve in a consent order.
In April of last year, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency said the bank had failed to conduct due diligence properly on its customers and was slow in filing suspicious activity reports. Those deficiencies prevented the bank from identifying its risky customers, and thus monitoring relationships with clients, said the Fed.
The Fed said it took action after regulators filed orders against the two subsidiaries Banamex USA and Citibank NA because of lack of oversight.
The Bank Secrecy Act makes banks report all large deposits of cash to prevent crimes such as terrorist financing or drug trafficking.
The bank announced it has been implementing new procedures to improve on its compliance and is progressing on addressing all its possible risks.
No details were divulged by the Fed regarding what measures must be undertaken by Citigroup, in order to secure that the issues are corrected, but they did say the bank was asked to look at discrepancies within the holding company levels.
