{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-urges-banking-regulator-to-address-citibanks-failures-consider-breaking-up-the-bank", "Warren Urges Banking Regulator to Address Citibank\u2019s Failures, Consider Breaking Up the Bank", "2024-10-03", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", "warren", "https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Warren Urges Banking Regulator to Address Citibank\u2019s Failures, Consider Breaking Up the Bank\n\nSenator Warns Michael Hsu, Head of Office of the Comptroller of Currency, that Citibank Has Become \u201cToo Big to Manage\u201d; OCC Has Not Taken Effective Action Despite Long List of Citi Problems\n\n\u201cThe evidence is clear: Citi has failed to make sufficient progress (in addressing its failures), despite being provided four years to do so. Following your own escalation framework, it may be time to break up Citi.\u201d\n\nText of Letter (PDF)\n\nBoston, MA \u2013 U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Michael Hsu, Acting Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), urging stronger regulation of Citibank (Citi), which has become \u201ctoo-big-to-manage\u201d and committed a number of massive blunders in recent years.\n\nCiti, the fourth largest bank in the United States, has failed to reform and modernize its operations despite being the subject of multiple enforcement actions by the OCC and the Federal Reserve. Citi has twice failed the Federal Reserve\u2019s \u201cstress test,\u201d which measures a bank\u2019s ability to make accurate projections during stressful scenarios. Citi was at the center of a 2014 $400 million fraud scandal, during which the bank failed to properly oversee its many units. This summer alone, Citi faced two crises. First, in June, regulators rejected Citi\u2019s \u201cliving will,\u201d a document that outlines how the bank will safely manage bankruptcy in the event that it fails. Then, Citi came under fire for repeated violations of a Federal Reserve rule meant to protect customer deposits.\n\nDespite Citibank's errors, including mistakenly wiring nearly $1 billion to one of its borrowers, Mr. Hsu has failed to take meaningful action to rein in the bank.\n\nIn a speech last year, Mr. Hsu outlined a four-step framework to address large banks' \u201ctoo-big-to-manage\u201d problem. Hsu\u2019s four steps, (1) private warnings; (2) public enforcement and fines; (3) growth restrictions; and (4) the breaking up of recidivist banks, must now be applied to Citi, which has repeatedly failed to protect its customers and meet bank regulators\u2019 standards. Mr. Hsu has also argued that after three strikes, repeat offenders are \u201cout.\u201d\n\nDespite hundreds of millions of dollars in civil penalties and repeat enforcement orders since 2020, Citi has been unable or unwilling to address its repeat and serious failures.\n\n\u201cThe evidence is clear: Citi has failed to make sufficient progress, despite being provided four years to do so. Following your own escalation framework, it may be time to break up Citi,\u201d Senator Warren wrote.\n\nSenator Warren has led the fight to hold banking regulators accountable to establishing and enforcing guardrails around the banking industry and preventing harmful bank mergers to protect the financial system, economy, and consumers:\n\nIn September 2024, Senator Warren wrote to the OCC and the Fed with renewed concern that the OCC and the Fed could allow New York Community Bank to escape regulatory oversight despite \u201csystemic failings\u201d in the bank\u2019s operation and management.\n\nIn April 2024, Senators Warren and Blumenthal probed the OCC for its regulatory failures amid NYCB\u2019s financial spiral.\n\nIn March 2024, a year after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Senator Warren sent a letter to three key banking regulators: Michael Barr, Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, Martin Gruenberg, Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Acting Comptroller Hsu, seeking an update on their progress in delivering on their public commitments to strengthen regulatory standards for banks with assets of $100 billion or more.\n\nIn February 2024, Senator Warren led 12 lawmakers urging the OCC and the Federal Reserve to block Capital One\u2019s plan to acquire Discover Financial Services. Their letter also expressed concerns with the OCC\u2019s proposed policy statement regarding merger approvals as essentially codifying a permissive approach.\n\nIn December 2023, Senator Warren led 6 senators in a letter to Acting Comptroller Hsu, calling on OCC to allow states to move forward with their efforts to protect consumers from harmful bank practices. The senators criticized the OCC for overstepping its preemption authority under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which it used to block tough, state-level consumer protections.\n\nIn August 2023, chairing a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Senator Warren highlighted the need for regulators to implement the strongest version of bank merger review guidelines in order to ensure stability in the financial system.\n\nIn June 2023, Senator Warren sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, Federal Deposit Investment Corporation Chairman Gruenberg, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Hsu, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, urging regulators to promote greater competition in the banking sector by toughening their stances on bank mergers and strengthening bank merger review guidelines.\n\nIn May 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Warren questioned Acting Comptroller Hsu on his decision to approve JPMorgan Chase\u2019s purchase of First Republic Bank after its collapse. This merger allowed a large, poorly supervised bank to be swallowed by America\u2019s largest bank, making it $200 billion larger than it was before.\n\nIn May 2023, Senator Warren sent a letter to Acting Comptroller Hsu and FDIC Chair Gruenberg, questioning the terms of the sale of First Republic Bank to JP Morgan Chase and the rationale behind the OCC and FDIC\u2019s approval of the deal.\n\nIn December 2022, Senators Warren and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) sent letters to three key banking regulators: the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and the OCC, raising concerns about the ties between the banking industry and crypto firms following FTX\u2019s bankruptcy. The senators asked each regulator how they assessed the banking system\u2019s exposure to crypto risks.\n\nIn December 2022, Senator Warren and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) sent a letter to the heads of all U.S. banking regulators, including Acting Comptroller Hsu, calling on them to improve banking access for immigrant communities and communities of color.\n\nIn August 2022, Senators Warren, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Whitehouse, and Sanders sent a letter to the OCC, calling on it to rescind the previously issued cryptocurrency guidance and replace it with more comprehensive guidance, in coordination with other prudential regulators.\n\nIn September 2021, Senator Warren and Representative Jes\u00fas \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (D-Ill.) reintroduced the Bank Merger Review Modernization Act, which would restrict harmful consolidation in the banking industry and protect consumers and the financial system from \u201cToo Big to Fail\u201d institutions, like those that caused the 2008 financial crisis.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:55:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-urges-banking-regulator-to-address-citibanks-failures-consider-breaking-up-the-bank"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9127710945904255, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}