Citigroup discriminated against Armenian-Americans, says federal regulator

Citigroup intentionally discriminated against Armenian Americans when they applied for credit cards, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Wednesday, as the bank argued internally that Armenians were more likely to commit fraud and referred to applicants as bad guys or affiliated with organised crime. The CFPB found that Citi employees were trained to avoid approving applications with last names ending in yan or "ian" the most common suffix to Armenian last names as well applications that originated in Glendale, California, where roughly 15 per cent of the country's Armenian American population lives. As part of the order, Citi will pay USD 24.5 million in fines as well as USD 1.4 million in remedies to impacted customers. In its investigation, the bureau found that Citi employees were instructed to single out applications that had Armenian last names, but then to conceal the real reason on why those applications were denied. Employees would be punished if they failed t

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