Citi UK affluent unit in FSA money laundering probe
Citigroup's International Personal Bank has frozen its take-up of UK customers because of concerns over anti-money laundering procedures.
The IPB, which caters for wealthy customers, banned staff from opening new accounts indefinitely after an internal review found its anti-money laundering systems required "urgent focus".
The unit, which has 170,000 customers globally, has been in discussions with the FSA which will appoint a third party to review IBP's systems.
A spokeswoman for Citigroup made clear the probe has nothing to do with its UK private banking business: "The article (in City AM) incorrectly refers to the private bank as the business in question, which is completely untrue. We are taking a short pause to new accounts in a small part of our consumer business in the UK."
A spokeswoman for the FSA said: "We require all regulated firms to understand the risk financial crime poses to their business and to have in place adequate systems and controls to manage them."
In a review that the FSA published last July into anti-money laundering systems, it found that private banks are more at risk from fraud because of their wealthy customer base.
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