PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CFG) today responded to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaint arising from certain billing errors and related issues that impacted a very small subset of Citizens’ credit card customers a number of years ago. Citizens will vigorously challenge the CFPB’s action, which is legally unwarranted and includes demands far out of line with actual customer impact.
Nearly five years ago, Citizens self-identified operational errors that resulted in a small impact across approximately 2%, or about 25,000, of Citizens’ approximately 1.2 million credit card customers. Citizens contacted the CFPB to report the issue while voluntarily beginning remediation efforts to ensure that no customers were affected. These efforts were all completed shortly after the issues were discovered and the bank did not receive a single customer complaint during or after the remediation. However, even after Citizens’ proactive remediation efforts and the nearly five years that have since passed, the CFPB has resurfaced this matter well beyond the expiration of the statute of limitations.
“We are puzzled and disappointed by the CFPB’s stance with respect to these long-resolved issues. Citizens fully addressed these matters within months of self-identifying, self-reporting and voluntarily remediating them more than four years ago,” said Stephen T. Gannon, General Counsel of Citizens. “The CFPB’s demands are wholly disproportionate to the issues at hand, and we strongly believe that the Bureau’s claims are unwarranted on both the facts and the law. We intend to vigorously contest the CFPB’s claims and are highly confident in the merits of our position.”
Citizens believes that the CFPB’s action is misguided for the following reasons:
Added Gannon: “We are proud of our commitment to transparency, our vigorous compliance programs, and our consistent effort to treat customers fairly and be a responsible company. We have received positive assessments of this program from all who have examined it, including the CFPB.”
About Citizens Financial Group, Inc.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $165.7 billion in assets as of December 31, 2019. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a 24/7 customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 2,700 ATMs and approximately 1,100 branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers corporate, institutional and not-for-profit clients a full range of wholesale banking products and services, including lending and deposits, capital markets, treasury services, foreign exchange and interest rate products, and asset finance. More information is available www.citizensbank.com or visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
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Source: Citizens Financial Group, Inc.