Citigroup Fined for Telling Clients to Buy When It Meant Sell
- Brokerage unit will pay $11.5 million to settle Finra claims
- Error in data feed led to transactions at odds with ratings
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Citigroup Inc. will pay $11.5 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims that a brokerage unit harmed retail customers by displaying inaccurate research ratings for hundreds of securities for nearly five years.
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. showed incorrect ratings -- such as “buy” instead of “sell” -- to brokers, customers and supervisors on 38 percent of the equities covered by its research department from February 2011 to December 2015, Finra said in a statement on Thursday.