Citigroup received regulatory relief when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced on December 18 2025 that it was terminating the July 2024 amendment to the bank’s October 2020 consent order. The amendment had required Citigroup to conduct a quarterly review of its resource allocation to meet the consent order’s milestones, a burden that the OCC now believes is no longer necessary for the bank’s safety and soundness.
The original consent order stemmed from significant deficiencies in Citigroup’s risk‑management, data‑management, regulatory reporting, and capital‑planning systems. In July 2024 the bank was fined $135.6 million by the OCC and the Federal Reserve for insufficient progress on these issues, and it had previously faced a $400 million penalty in 2020. The amendment was imposed to enforce quarterly oversight, but the OCC’s decision to lift it reflects the bank’s demonstrated progress and the regulator’s confidence in its controls.
Citigroup’s own statement highlighted that its transformation initiatives—modernizing, standardizing, automating, and digitizing controls across risk‑management systems—have been a top priority. “Our transformation has been our number one priority, and we are dedicating the resources necessary to modernize our systems and strengthen our risk and control environment,” the bank said. Most programs are at or near target state, and the bank is already seeing the benefits of improved, standardized, automated, and digitized controls.
The removal of the quarterly review requirement frees Citigroup from a significant compliance burden, potentially freeing capital and operational capacity for its broader simplification and institutional‑focus strategy. It also removes a constraint that could have limited capital distribution, giving the bank greater flexibility to allocate resources to growth initiatives and shareholder returns. The decision signals that the OCC believes Citigroup’s risk‑management framework is now robust enough to support its ongoing business operations without the extra oversight.
Investors responded positively to the regulatory relief, reflecting confidence in Citigroup’s risk‑management progress and the bank’s ability to allocate resources more efficiently. The market’s reaction underscores the importance of regulatory confidence in large banking institutions’ stability and operational resilience.
While the amendment has been lifted, the underlying October 2020 consent order remains in effect, and the bank continues to work on remaining compliance requirements. The OCC’s decision, however, marks a significant milestone in Citigroup’s long‑term transformation and positions the bank to focus more fully on its core business strategy and shareholder value creation.
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