Citi Fined for Discriminating Against Armenian Americans (1)

Citigroup Inc. was ordered to pay $25.9 million in fines and redress for illegally discriminating against credit-card applicants the bank identified as Armenian American.

The bank, from 2015 to 2021, singled out applicants for certain credit-card products suspected of being of Armenian descent, based on their surnames, then Citigroup supervisors conspired to hide the discrimination by instructing employees not to discuss the practices in writing or on recorded phone lines, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a statement Wednesday. The bank will pay $1.4 million to harmed consumers along with a $24.5 million penalty.

A Citibank branch in San Francisco

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

“Citi purposefully discriminated against ...