Citigroup fined $1.25M for inadequate background checks when hiring

Citigroup hired three convic🧸ted criminals over a seven-year period after failing to run adequate background checks on m✅ore than 10,000 employees, an industry watchdog said.

The Wall Street giant headed by CEO Michael Corbat agreed to pay $1.25 million in 🃏fines to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for not registering or properly fingerprinting 10,400 people in its broker-dealer division between January 2010 and May 2017, Finra said in a Monday announcement.

Finra didn’t specify who the criminals were, or the nature 🤡of their crimes. Nevertheless, the banking industry’s self-regulatory agency notes that the trio “were allowed to associate, or remain associated” with Citi during the seven-year stretch.

Cit🍌i didn’t admit or deny the findings i💯n the Finra action.

It isn’t the first time a big bank got dingܫed for giving jobs ༒to criminals.

In 2017, JPMorgan Chase hired ex-cons into jobs that could access clients’ bank-account information as it failed to properly screen thousands of employees for more than eight years, acc🔥ording to a Finra complaint at the time.

JPMorg﷽an, which didn’t admit or deny the findings, also paid a $1.25 million fine at the time.

“We aꦦre pleased to have this matter resolved,” Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a Citi spokeswoman said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Citi plans to lay ๊off hund🐟reds of otherwise law-abiding citizens, including at least 100 people in its stock-trading unit, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday.

The layoffs — which could inclu🉐de more cuts across bond-trading units as well — come as𒁏 the bank is planning to combine its stock-trading unit with its prime services group, which works with hedge funds and other institutions.

Citi reported earlier th꧟is July that revenue from its stock trading unit declined fell to $790 million during the second quarter, down 9% from the same period in 2018.