Consumer complaint received 2026-06-25 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
I am a Citibank customer of approximately 29 years ; my primary joint checking account ( ending XXXX ) has been open continuously since XXXX. On or about XXXX XXXX XXXX, Citibank closed all of my accounts : two checking accounts and a XXXX XXXX account at the bank, along with my associated Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX rollover IRA. Citibank cited an incomplete " Know Your Customer '' ( KYC ) review ( Citi KYC Reference ID XXXX ). The closure cut off my access to my funds and ended a 29-year banking relationship. I am pursuing the brokerage rollover IRA, and the risk that its forced closure triggers tax and early-withdrawal consequences, separately with the appropriate securities regulator ; I note it here only to show the full scope of the closure. The closure was not the result of any failure to cooperate on my part. The KYC review opened around XX/XX/XXXX. Because my assigned financial advisor ( XXXX XXXX ) failed to advance the process, I personally called Citi 's KYC department on at least three occasions ( XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX ) and provided every item requested. Citi recorded each of these calls. On these calls I : - Corrected inaccurate information in Citi 's own KYC profile, including a long-dissolved former employer ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX which ceased operations in XXXX ) and a phantom company ( " XXXX XXXX '' ) that Citi had listed as my source of wealth. The correct entity is XXXX XXXX XXXX, my own registered LLC. - Provided detailed source-of-wealth information and, at Citi 's request, supplied statements from external retirement and brokerage accounts to substantiate that my Citi holdings were consistent with my stated net worth. - Was told by Citi 's KYC representatives that the review was essentially complete and that no further action was required from me. Despite this, Citi issued a closure-warning letter dated XX/XX/XXXX ( closure date XX/XX/XXXX ) and ultimately closed all of my accounts. On XX/XX/XXXX, my Citi Wealth Relationship XXXX emailed me acknowledging that I had been " incredibly cooperative and transparent, '' stating that the closure was unexpected, and confirming that she had escalated the matter to KYC management to seek reopening. On XX/XX/XXXX, two members of Citi 's Florida wealth-management leadership called me directly and acknowledged, on a recorded Citi line , that the closure of my accounts was caused by a defect in Citi 's own systems and not by any failure on my part. They confirmed I had cooperated and provided the requested information " each and every time, '' and stated that my accounts were closed even though I had done so. They described this as a recurring " glitch '' in Citi 's systems that they are actively working to repair, stated that it is affecting " far too many '' Citi customers across multiple business lines including Citi Private Bank, and said they had escalated the problem that day to senior Citi operations leadership. They called the treatment of a 29-year relationship " inexcusable, '' and offered to attempt to re-establish my accounts and reverse the resulting charges. XXXX XXXX also committed to send me a written follow-up. This was a management-level admission that my accounts were wrongfully closed by a known, systemic process failure, not for any legitimate compliance reason. Citi has only partly honored those commitments, and its internal handling remains contradictory. As of the date of this complaint, Citibank has reopened my primary 29-year joint checking account ( ending XXXX ), which I can again use. That reopening, however, was incomplete and left the account functionally impaired by the same systems Citi 's management has admitted are defective : my ATM/debit cards were never reinstated and remained blocked even after the accounts were reopened a defect Citibank discovered only when I happened to flag it on XX/XX/XXXX and my household was silently dropped from the account 's subscription-rebate ( perks ) benefit program when Citi 's system closed and reopened the accounts. Both had to be corrected manually after the fact. The second checking account ( ending XXXX ) remains closed ; it existed only to link my departing IRA, so I do not seek its restoration. The XXXX XXXX account ( ending XXXX ) is open but unfunded. XXXX XXXX never sent the written follow-up or the direct contact information he committed to provide on XX/XX/XXXX, now more than a week ago. On XX/XX/XXXX, two Citi units gave me directly contradictory information on the same day. My wealth relationship manager 's office emailed asking me to re-document my " source of wealth '' on a business questionnaire, while Citi 's KYC department confirmed to me on a recorded call that my source of wealth had already been accepted in XXXX and that the review was " satisfied/approved '' on XX/XX/XXXX with " nothing else needed. '' Closure-related charges have continued, and the disruption from the wrongful closure of a XXXX relationship remains ongoing and unremedied. That same evening ( XX/XX/XXXX ), Citibank restricted every one of my accounts again under a new case reference ( XXXX ), hours after its own KYC department had confirmed on a recorded line that the prior review was satisfied and there was no block. The restriction bars deposits, transfers, and withdrawals from my bank accounts and warns that if I do not act, Citibank will liquidate my retirement account and mail me a check. The restriction notice states that my accounts were restricted because I " have not yet provided critical, missing information, '' frames the restriction as something I can " easily lift '' by providing that information, and presents closure as avoidable by a XX/XX/XXXX deadline. It presents the restriction, in other words, as a conditional and preventable consequence within my control. That stated basis is false on Citi 's own record. Citi 's KYC department confirmed on a recorded call the same day that I had already provided the information, that it was accepted in XXXX, and that there was " no block. '' And on XX/XX/XXXX, my own Citi relationship manager confirmed to me in writing that the restriction is procedural, that the case is simply being finalized internally, and that there is " no new needed information '' from me. Citibank nonetheless imposed the full restriction immediately, on a stated basis its own employees had already disproved. The adverse action was taken first. It was not a future consequence I could avert by supplying anything, because Citi confirms there is nothing left for me to supply. Citibank subsequently lifted the restriction on my deposit accounts my joint checking was usable again within days yet it has continued to generate and mail me the same restriction notices. A mailed copy of the XX/XX/XXXX restriction notice reached me about a week later, on or about XX/XX/XXXX. When I called Citibank about it, a representative told me that no further information was needed, that the case was simply being finalized, and that Citibank 's system " will periodically continue to send notices until the case is closed, '' so I should " disregard '' the notice. Citibank is thus mailing a 29-year customer formal notices that state he failed to provide " critical, missing information '' and threaten to liquidate his retirement account, while simultaneously instructing him to ignore those notices because nothing is in fact outstanding. A consumer can not reliably tell a genuine restriction notice from XXXX Citibank will later say to disregard. This was still unresolved as of XX/XX/XXXX. Roughly two weeks after Citibank 's representatives first told me the review was in its " final stages, '' I called Citibank 's KYC department again to confirm my status. A representative told me my accounts were unblocked, but that the review remained open and was in a " disposition '' stage that had been handed to another Citibank department for a final approval she could neither see nor expedite, with no further information needed from me. She again offered to request a written " KYC satisfied '' letter once the review closes a letter I have asked for repeatedly and still do not have. To date, Citibank has never rescinded its XX/XX/XXXX restriction notice in writing. That notice still states on its face that my Citi accounts will be closed, and my retirement account liquidated and mailed to me as a check, if I do not provide information by XX/XX/XXXX the very notice Citibank 's representatives have told me to disregard because nothing is in fact outstanding. More than two weeks after Citibank 's personnel began telling me the matter was in its " final stages, '' Citibank still has not given me a single authoritative written answer reconciling that standing closure-and-liquidation notice with its assurances that I owe it nothing further. Underlying every step of this is a single, systemic failure : Citibank 's automated KYC and account-closure processes took adverse action against a fully compliant 29-year customer, repeated it, and would not release it and no person at Citibank has been able to stop or override it. My assigned financial advisor wrote to me that the closure was " beyond our control. '' My relationship manager advocated for me for weeks, including on weekends and after hours, yet the restriction persisted and the false notices kept arriving. Citibank 's own Florida wealth-management leadership admitted the closure was a system defect, said they had escalated it to senior bank-operations leadership, and still could neither prevent the renewed restriction nor stop Citibank 's systems from mailing me notices they themselves told me to disregard to the point that, in XXXX XXXX, a senior Citibank manager was reduced to escalating internally to try to switch off the bank 's automated " missing information '' messages, which the system continued to generate by default. When a bank 's own advisor, relationship manager, and senior management all acknowledge the customer did nothing wrong and still can not stop the bank 's systems from closing his accounts, freezing his retirement assets, and mailing him false liquidation threats, the failure is systemic not the error of any one employee. I am asking the CFPB to require Citibank to : ( 1 ) produce the recordings of my XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX KYC calls under Reference ID XXXX, and the XX/XX/XXXX call from its wealth-management leadership ; ( 2 ) explain the basis for closing and then restricting my accounts after its own representatives confirmed my compliance and after its own management attributed the closure to a system defect, including how it could restrict my accounts for " missing information '' that its own KYC department confirmed on a recorded call the same day, and that its own relationship manager confirmed in writing on XX/XX/XXXX, had already been provided and accepted ; ( 3 ) reverse any fees or third-party charges ( e.g., stop-payment fees ) caused by the closure ; ( 4 ) correct the inaccurate source-of-wealth/employment records that drove the adverse action ; and ( 5 ) given Citi management 's own statement that this defect is affecting " far too many '' customers, examine whether other consumers have been subjected to the same wrongful closures.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief