October 15, 2014
By Stephanie West
New York, NY – Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. (CGMI), a subsidiary of Citigroup, has agreed to reimburse more than 31,000 Citi customers who were charged higher advisory fees than they negotiated. The agreement returns nearly $16 million to about 31,000 Citigroup customers.
“Often, it takes just one tip to uncover an error that affects tens of thousands of individuals. In this case, a bank customer complained to my office about her account. We investigated that complaint and found a widespread problem, one that cost bank customers, in New York and across the country, millions of dollars,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “
Customers with so-called “TRAK” accounts typically pay a fee for advisory services ranging from 1% to 1.5%. However, the fees were negotiable, and many customers were able to obtain a lower fee than the standard rate. An inquiry into that process, though, has determined that many customers were being charged higher-than-negotiated rates and unaware that they were paying more than they should.
