|
|
The Morning Risk Report: Regulators Fine Citigroup $400 Million Over ‘Serious Ongoing Deficiencies’
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Federal Reserve faulted Citigroup for falling short in ‘various areas of risk management and internal controls.’ PHOTO: JOHN NACION/NURPHOTO/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
|
Good morning. Federal banking regulators fined Citigroup $400 million and ordered the nation’s third-largest bank to fix its risk-management systems, citing “significant ongoing deficiencies.”
In a consent order agreed to by the bank’s board, the Federal Reserve faulted Citigroup for falling short in “various areas of risk management and internal controls” including data management, regulatory reporting and capital planning. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in a separate consent order, said the fine was punishment for the bank’s “longstanding failure” to remedy problems in its risk and data systems.
The punishment is gentler than the rebuke Wells Fargo got for weaknesses in its risk-management systems brought to light by its 2016 fake-account scandal.
[Continued below…]
|
|
|
|
|
At issue at Citigroup is the infrastructure underpinning its systems meant to identify risk and protect customer data. Regulators have long fretted that the hodgepodge of systems, a legacy of a string of deals in the 1990s, could make the bank vulnerable to costly missteps. A recent high-profile error—Citigroup’s accidental $900 million payment to creditors of cosmetics company Revlon—gave credence to their concerns.
The consent orders from the OCC and Fed leave Citigroup with a lengthy to-do list. The regulators ordered the bank to form a new board committee to oversee the risk overhaul and to develop plans for holding management accountable. The OCC called out Citigroup’s procedures for reporting problems within the bank to the board of directors and leaders’ lack of “clearly defined roles and responsibilities.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
From Risk & Compliance Journal
|
|
|
|
|
|
Companies are facing new and amplified compliance risks at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has made many compliance programs less effective, a new survey found.
Ninety percent of companies say they have experienced new risks or that existing risks have been exacerbated by the coronavirus, according to a recent Wall Street Journal survey of compliance professionals. Almost half of respondents reported both. And one in four said compliance programs have taken a hit during the pandemic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prosecutors alleged the price-fixing took place from 2012 into early 2019. PHOTO: DANE RHYS/REUTERS
|
|
|
-
Six current and former chicken-industry executives were indicted on price-fixing charges, expanding the U.S. government’s antitrust prosecutions in the $65 billion poultry industry. The charges, announced Wednesday, target executives from several chicken companies and provide new details about the alleged conspiracy. Prosecutors said the price-fixing took place from 2012 into early 2019, a longer period than the Justice Department previously had alleged.
-
The Supreme Court considered a multibillion-dollar copyright battle between Oracle and Google, with justices appearing to look for a resolution that would retain legal protections for software code without throwing the tech industry into disarray.
-
Europe’s top competition official said she would make more use of injunctions, including in pending cases against big technology companies, after successfully forcing U.S. chip maker Broadcom to change its alleged anticompetitive practices. The European Commission on Wednesday said it was closing its probe and accepted Broadcom’s legally binding commitments to refrain from any exclusivity arrangements for chips used in television set-top boxes and internet modems over the next seven years.
-
A congressional panel took direct aim at one of Amazon’s defenses against antitrust scrutiny of its retail dominance and detailed allegations about how the company wields its market power.
-
A Securities and Exchange Commission committee proposed that the regulator adopt new reporting standards aimed at helping traders decide which electronic marketplaces to frequent.
-
A federal appeals court dealt a blow to President Trump, ruling that New York prosecutors could enforce a subpoena seeking years of financial documents, including his tax returns.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The president’s call to halt negotiations surprised lawmakers and marked another development in the home stretch of the 2020 campaign. PHOTO: STEFANI REYNOLDS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
|
President Trump renewed his calls for Congress to pass individual coronavirus relief measures, including airline aid to avert widespread layoffs, after he ended negotiations with Democrats on a larger package until after the election.
Mr. Trump’s abrupt pivot cast new uncertainty over the prospects of more government relief. Economists are dialing back their forecasts for U.S. economic growth this year as prospects fade for a renewed round of government stimulus.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Charles Scharf, chief executive of Wells Fargo, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services in Washington in March. PHOTO: STEFANI REYNOLDS/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
|
A long list of challenges confronted Wells Fargo Chief Executive Charles Scharf when he was brought in to restore the bank’s tarnished reputation. In the year since, his problems have only multiplied.
America’s fourth-largest bank is in the grip of a recession that threatens to deliver steep loan losses. Near-zero interest rates are straining profit margins. And the bank is still in hot water with regulators, which imposed a growth cap as a result of the bank’s four-year-old fake-account scandal and the plethora of problems it exposed.
|
|
|
|
-
JPMorgan Chase said it would extend billions of dollars in additional loans to Black and Latino home buyers and small-business owners as part of a push to narrow America’s racial wealth gap. The bank—America’s largest—said it is committing a total of $30 billion over five years to the effort, which focuses on expanding access to affordable housing as well as boosting minority-owned small businesses.
-
Adidas appointed Amanda Rajkumar as global head of human resources, effective next year, Dow Jones Newswires reports. Ms. Rajkumar will join the German sporting-goods company’s executive board from French bank BNP Paribas SA, filling the vacancy created by Adidas’s previous head of HR, Karen Parkin, who this year announced plans to retire following employee complaints about the company’s culture and lack of diversity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Img caption/IMG CREDIT HERE
|
|
|
|
The Trump administration’s overhaul of the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign tech workers will pressure the business model of companies that make low-cost tech workers from India and elsewhere available in the U.S. The visas are especially prized by technology firms and information-technology departments at a range of corporations.
The restrictions require U.S. employers to pay H-1B workers higher wages, narrow the types of credentials needed for foreign job applicants to qualify and shorten the length of visas for certain contract workers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
TikTok parent company ByteDance’s headquarters in Beijing. PHOTO: GREG BAKER/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
|
Centricus Asset Management Ltd. is trying to entice the head of TikTok’s parent company with a long-shot alternative bid, as the popular video-sharing app remains caught in a standoff between the U.S. and China. The low-profile London investment firm has revised an offer several times in recent weeks based on feedback from Zhang Yiming, CEO of TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd., and his advisers, according to people familiar with the discussions, a copy of the bid, and other documents pertaining to the offer viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The bid’s architects are positioning it as a backup to a deal already on the table led by Oracle, which China’s ByteDance struck to appease the U.S. government and which was preliminarily approved by President Trump last month. The U.S. has called the app a national security concern.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Facebook said it would add restrictions to posts about poll-watching operations that use militarized language or suggest an aim to intimidate voters. PHOTO: GABBY JONES/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
|
Facebook said it would suspend indefinitely all political and social-issue advertising in the U.S. after the polls close Nov. 3, in its latest move to combat potential confusion and abuse related to the election.
The policy adds to an announcement by Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg last month that Facebook will bar new political ads in the week leading up to Election Day and flag any candidates’ premature claims of victory. He said at the time that he worried about an increased risk of civil unrest given the division over the presidential race and the potential for a delayed outcome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|