Japan’s financial regulator has ordered the banking unit of Citigroup to improve its operations after a tape containing details of Japanese customers’ accounts went missing earlier this year. Citing insufficient systems to control information and a delayed response to the lost data, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it had ordered Citibank NA to submit plans to improve operations by 12 July.
In March, Citibank said that a magnetic tape, which contained monthly transaction data on 123,690 Citibank customer accounts in Japan, went missing on February 21 in Singapore while a local security company was transporting it. The bank said at the time that it believed the incident was an accident and not linked to any criminal activity. It was not clear if anyone has had access to the data.
Citigroup has been actively pursuing business in Japan, where it has set up a joint insurance venture and has commercial and investment banking and consumer financing units.