adminThe Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Citibank to pay $25.9 million in fines and consumer redress for intentional and illegal discrimination against credit-card applicants based on their Armenian heritage, the regulator said Wednesday.
“The CFPB found that Citi purposefully discriminated against applicants of Armenian descent, primarily based on the spelling of their last name,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “Citi stereotyped Armenians as prone to crime and fraud. In reality, Citi illegally fabricated documents to cover up its discrimination.”
Representatives for Citigroup
C,
Citibank’s parent company, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The CFPB said that from 2015 through 2021, Citi “treated Armenian Americans as criminals who were likely to commit fraud” by denying them credit cards based on their names and where they lived, discriminating against those who lived in or around Glendale, Calif., an area with a high concentration of Armenian Americans.
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