A unit of Citigroup agreed to a $750,000 civil fine for not retaining millions of emails, which is required by securities industry rules, according to a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The problem at Citigroup Global Markets Inc occurred during an upgrade of its email archiving system between October, 2008 and late December, 2009, the settlement, dated December 2, said.
Citigroup's lapse "potentially impacted the Firm's ability to respond to email requests in FINRA investigations and other matters," the settlement said. Citigroup neither admitted nor denied FINRA's findings. FINRA noted in the settlement that Citigroup self-reported the problem to the Wall Street watchdog. Industry rules require brokerages to capture and save electronic communications for three years.
"Citi takes matters of email retention very seriously," a spokeswoman said in a statement. "We self-reported this issue to FINRA, conducted a thorough investigation and adopted enhancements to our systems and procedures. We are pleased to have settled this matter," she said.
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