Citibank Ordered to Pay $700 Million in Consumer Relief

Citigroup Inc. has been ordered to pay an estimated $700 million to customers the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says were harmed by illegal marketing and billing practices. Citi and its subsidiaries will also have to pay $70 million in civil penalties to regulators.

The enforcement action announced Tuesday morning is tied to the lender's marketing and billing tactics ranging from 2000 to 2013 of credit card add-on products, including credit-monitoring and debt-protection services. The action also states some customers were deceptively enrolled in these programs and that some services promised weren't provided.

This marks the 10th action the CFPB has taken since 2012 against major lenders for their marketing and billing practices pertaining to add-on products that they have sold to consumers. The bureau had previously fined Capital One Financial Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., among others.

Citigroup, which had previously disclosed the investigation, said it has already been refunding affected customers since 2013. It said it had cooperated fully with regulators.

Lenders ramped up sales of add-on products, in particular services that promise to monitor consumers' credit reports for signs of identity theft or other fraudulent actions, in the wake of the recession as consumers became more concerned about their credit standing. Lenders or companies they had partnered with up charged consumers on a monthly basis for these services.

Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at [e-mail] and Christina Rexrode at [e-mail]

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