WASHINGTON, March 23: Citigroup will pay $20 million to settle charges that it failed to provide customers with important information about mutual fund shares, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday. The settlement, which comes out of a broader SEC investigation into mutual fund sales practices, involved two disclosure failures at Citigroup, which offered its retail brokerage services under the Smith Barney trade name, the SEC said.
The company settled without admitting or denying the SEC findings. The first disclosure failure involved Citigroup’s revenue sharing programme, known as the Tier Programme, in which about 75 mutual fund complexes made revenue-sharing payments to Citigroup in exchange for “shelf space” within Citigroup’s retail brokerage network.
The SEC said the practice represented a conflict of interest that Citigroup failed to adequately disclose to its clients. The second disclosure issue related to Citigroup financial consultants recommending and selling Class B shares of mutual fund shares to customers in amounts totalling $50,000 or more. Citigroup spokeswoman Kim Atwater declined to comment on the SEC action.—Reuters
