The UK arm of America's third-largest bank has been fined a record £44m by the Bank of England for "serious and widespread" errors in its regulatory reports.

The Bank's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said a failure to submit complete and accurate returns between June 2014 and the end of 2018 meant they did not give a full picture of the bank's financial strength.

The fine, the largest imposed for such failures, was levied on three of Citi's UK units: Citigroup Global Markets, Citibank NA London branch and Citibank Europe Plc UK branch.

The PRA highlighted issues with its governance and oversight, finding the bank did not have enough staff working on regulatory reporting to ensure it was accurate.

It said: "While Citi remained in surplus to its liquidity and capital requirements at all times, the failings persisted over a significant length of time and were serious and widespread in nature.


"They led to significant errors in the firms' returns, including six substantive matters which had a material or potentially material impact on the returns."

It also declared the company's documentation was "inadequate" for a firm its size.

Sam Woods, deputy governor for prudential regulation at the Bank of England and chief executive of the PRA, said: "Accurate regulatory returns from firms are vital for the PRA in fulfilling our role.

Image: Citi said it has made 'substantial strategic enhancements' to its reporting infrastructure

"Citi failed to deliver accurate returns and failed to meet the standards of governance and oversight of regulatory reporting which we expect of a systemically important bank."

The bank responded: "Citi has fully remediated the past regulatory reporting issues identified by the PRA, and settled this matter at the earliest possible opportunity.

"As the PRA's notice makes clear, the issues identified relate to the reporting process and, throughout the period under review, the relevant Citi UK entities remained in surplus to their liquidity and capital requirements at all times.

"Citi places a high priority on meeting its regulatory reporting requirements, and has devoted significant resources to UK financial reporting before, during and after the period to which the PRA's notice relates.

"The PRA acknowledges that Citi has made substantial strategic enhancements to its regulatory reporting infrastructure in the UK, and has also conducted a review of the systems and controls underpinning its regulatory reporting framework.

"Citi co-operated fully with the PRA throughout the process, and in 2019 a leading independent accountancy and audit firm confirmed that Citi had remediated the material issues identified."