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The Morning Risk Report: Regulators Prepare to Reprimand Citigroup Over Risk Systems
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Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat in February 2019. PHOTO: CLODAGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS
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Good morning. Federal regulators are preparing to reprimand Citigroup for failing to improve its risk-management systems—an expansive set of technology and procedures designed to detect problematic transactions, risky trades and anything else that could harm the bank.
The expected rebuke from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve accelerated planning for Chief Executive Michael Corbat’s retirement, according to people familiar with the matter. Regulators didn’t ask Mr. Corbat to step down, the people said. Rather, he came to believe that an expensive, multiyear systems overhaul designed to address regulators’ concerns was best left in the hands of his successor, Jane Fraser, they said.
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A consent order likely would require Citigroup to develop and execute a plan to fix its risk systems, the people said. Such formal regulatory actions sometimes come with fines or stricter oversight, but it isn’t clear what, if any, punishment would be imposed, they said.
“We are completely committed to improving our risk and control environment,” a Citigroup spokeswoman said, citing the bank’s efforts to strengthen controls, infrastructure and governance. “However, while we have made significant and demonstrable progress in each of these areas, we recognize that we are not yet where we need to be and that has to change.”
For years, regulators have privately pressed Citigroup to fix the bank’s risk systems, according to people familiar with the matter. A public rebuke would ratchet up the pressure. The Fed and the OCC have many tools at their disposal to address problems out of the public eye. A consent order indicates that those methods didn’t achieve the desired results.
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China’s Xinjiang region produces a sizeable portion of the world’s cotton. Cotton farmers in Kuche, China. PHOTO: YUANHUANHUAN/ZUMA PRESS
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The Trump administration banned cotton apparel, computer parts and other imports from companies and suppliers that allegedly relied on forced and imprisoned laborers in China’s Xinjiang region. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials issued orders for agents to hold shipments from four commercial entities, one training center and an industrial park that they suspect have handled goods made with forced labor, citing the power of a 1930s law that declared the importation of those goods illegal.
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A planned $765 million U.S. loan for Eastman Kodak to produce drug ingredients is under review by the inspector general of the agency that helped put together the deal. The inquiry by the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. is the latest known government probe of the planned transaction. The Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into how the onetime photography giant disclosed the loan, while several Democratic-led congressional committees have announced a probe of the agreement.
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Greg Kelly, the former Nissan Motor executive charged with helping hide Carlos Ghosn’s compensation as Nissan chief, pleaded not guilty at the opening of his trial in Tokyo.
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A debate over whether business-interruption insurance policies held by millions of companies cover a pandemic is increasingly being tested in global courts, drawing in regulators, insurers, industry groups and company owners.
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New York state won court permission to collect $200 million from the makers and distributors of opioid painkillers to help combat the costs of opioid addiction.
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The Trump administration said it was withdrawing a plan to tighten federal oversight of how states pay for their share of Medicaid after some states and medical groups said the new rule would have deprived them of billions of dollars in funding in the throes of the pandemic.
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The Trump administration will deny oil refiners’ retroactive requests for exemptions from U.S. biofuel laws, a major boon for Iowa, the leading producer of biofuels and a crucial state that could help determine which party wins the presidency and control of the Senate.
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TikTok has soared to around 100 million monthly users in the U.S., from about 11 million in early 2018. PHOTO: GREG BAKER/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Oracle’s bid to become the “trusted technology partner” for the popular Chinese-owned TikTok app may not be a standard-issue business deal, but it’s increasingly the sort of arrangement that undergoes a national security review, lawyers say.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Oracle bid would be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a national security panel that is best known for reviewing outright foreign takeovers of U.S. companies. Attorneys who advise companies and investors undergoing national-security reviews say the panel is increasingly dealing with matters that involve data privacy, as well as deals that involve minority investments, private-equity investments and limited partnership structures.
In recent years, Cfius has increasingly looked at deals that involved access to personal data of U.S. citizens—not only for technology platforms but for insurers, health-care companies and hospitality firms. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) last week asked for a Cfius review of a proposed deal between GNC Holdings and China’s Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, arguing that the deal could give the Chinese government access to sensitive health data about U.S. consumers.
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The California Public Employees' Retirement System, with headquarters in Sacramento, is the nation’s largest pension fund. PHOTO: MAX WHITTAKER/REUTERS
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Directors of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System will discuss limiting personal investments by the fund’s investment chief and potentially other officials following revelations that the fund’s former investment chief held shares in one of its private-equity managers.
Calpers Chief Executive Marcie Frost is already planning to ask the next investment chief to sell or place in a blind trust any holdings that could prompt a conflict of interest. A Calpers spokesman said the restriction would likely apply to most or all of the person’s investments, given the scope of the fund’s $410 billion portfolio. The board could decide to call off that plan or to codify the restriction into a policy governing all future CIOs. It could expand the restriction to other Calpers officials.
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The U.K.’s new Accounting Standards Endorsement Board will be responsible for adopting international accounting rules. PHOTO: HANNAH MCKAY/REUTERS
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The U.K. government named a chairman for a new international accounting standards board, which is expected to be operational once the country’s transition period with the European Union is over. Pauline Wallace, a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers who also served in several regulatory roles, will head the newly created U.K. Accounting Standards Endorsement Board, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The board will have up to 14 members and is expected to be operational in early 2021.
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An electrical worker looks on in the aftermath of the Beachie Creek fire in Oregon. PHOTO: SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS
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Fourteen people are reported dead in the North Complex Fire, one of 87 large blazes that have burned more than 4.6 million acres in 10 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. There have been a total of at least 35 fatalities so far, as an area bigger than the state of Connecticut has burned. Scientists have said forest management mistakes and climate change are both to blame for the fires, along with housing construction in high-risk areas.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Sally took aim at the central Gulf Coast, as thousands of people prepared for heavy rain and potentially deadly flooding from New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., to the Alabama-Florida state line. Sally strengthened to a Category 2 storm and was expected to make landfall around the Mississippi-Alabama state line early Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
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Hershey is trying to save Halloween from the coronavirus pandemic. The candy maker said it has worked with public-health experts and retailers to create a website to offer advice on how to trick-or-treat safely in different parts of the U.S., depending on the intensity of local Covid-19 transmission.
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