Trump administration terminates Citibank consent order prohibiting Armenian American discrimination
Source: Los Angeles Times
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has terminated a consent order that prohibited Citibank from discriminating against its Armenian American customers.
The agency, led by President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, ended the consent order on Thursday, three years earlier than when it was set to expire.
The termination order signed by Vought said the bank had already paid more than $24.5 million in penalties and redress payments required by the agreement, and that it had taken steps to prevent future violations of the law. The order also waived any allegations of noncompliance.
Citibank entered into the consent order in November 2023 after it was accused of applying more stringent criteria or even blocking the accounts of credit card applicants in and around Glendale with surnames ending in “ian” and “yan.”
The bank suspected that those applicants seeking new cards or higher limits would be more likely to commit fraud, with some employees referring to them as “Armenian bad guys” or the “Southern California Armenian Mafia,” according to the consent order.
The agency also also found that the bank took “corrective action” against employees who failed to identify and deny the applications. Employees were ordered not to tell customers the real reasons for their rejections or to discuss it in writing or on recorded lines.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-10-17/trump-administration-cancels-citibank-consent-order-prohibiting-armenian-american-discrimination
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