WASHINGTON, DC – The CFPB issued an enforcement order against Citi for intentional discrimination against credit card applicants of Armenian descent. 

From 2015 to 2021, the bank applied a different and more stringent set of criteria to applicants of Armenian origin, and because senior staff understood the practice was unlawful, instructed employees to make up a reason to justify the decision. In its order, the CFPB revealed how Citi trained their employees to apply greater scrutiny to applications from consumers with surnames ending in “ian” and “yan,” and when the applicant lived in a US city with a high concentration of households of Armenian origin. The bank believed Armenian consumers were “prone to crime and fraud,” resulting in disparate impacts that could not be justified by a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason, violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B. 

The Consumer Federation of America released the following statement:

“It’s an open-and-shut example of intentional discrimination,” said Adam Rust, Director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of America. “Through a coordinated plan, Citi singled out a group of applicants for additional scrutiny based solely on their national origin and without any business justification. Financial institutions that exclude groups from getting credit solely because of their national origin by applying blunt-fisted de-risking approaches should take note of this order. Discrimination in financial services is harmful not just to credit applicants but also to the economy and the integrity of our markets. We applaud the CFPB for identifying this practice and issuing an order to end it.”