Citigroup Ordered to Suspend Some Operations in Japan

Shingo Kawamoto and Takahiko Hyuga
Bloomberg News
Friday, June 26, 2009

June 26 (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc. was ordered by Japan’s financial regulator to suspend marketing of banking services to individuals for a month, after failing to put in place adequate internal controls to prevent money laundering.

The Financial Services Agency told Citibank Japan Ltd. to halt retail banking sales from July 15 to Aug. 14, except in cases where the company is approached by customers, the regulator said in a statement in Tokyo today. It also ordered the bank to improve governance and control systems.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

The regulator found Citigroup had “fundamental problems” with its compliance, including systems to detect and monitor suspicious transactions. The New York-based bank failed to implement an improvement plan it submitted after it was forced to close its private banking business in Japan in 2004 for a similar failure, the watchdog said.

Citibank Japan didn’t update a database used to screen suspicious transactions since 2004, and management officials “lack an understanding of the rules applied in Japan, such as laws and regulations, and an awareness of improvement,” the regulator said in its statement.

Full story here.

Print this page.

Comment Rules

Comments are closed.