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ProfileCompany or group

Citibank, N.A.

Lender or loan platform

PPP
Type
Company or group
Role
Lender or loan platform
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

Citi made 47,765 PPP loans for $4.8 billion and limited them to existing customers after an internal presentation warned the policy "might create heightened risk of disparate impact on minority and women-owned businesses." It gave $50 million of PPP proceeds to its foundation.

  • Type: National bank; PPP lender
  • Parent: Citigroup Inc.

In the archive

Citibank made 47,765 Paycheck Protection Program loans for $4.8 billion, in the SBA's loan file, 24th among lenders by dollars.1 Priced loan by loan under the SBA's fee schedule, they carry about $192.8 million in processing fees.12 Fortune noted in July 2020 that Citi, with more than $2.2 trillion in assets, had made about $3.4 billion of PPP loans; a spokesperson told the magazine the figure "reflects our smaller size as an SBA lender" and that small businesses are typically served through branches, of which Citi had "fewer than 700" nationwide.3

Existing customers, after a warning

A House Select Subcommittee staff report found in October 2020 that Citi limited its PPP program to existing customers. It quoted an internal Citi presentation to the bank's product-approval committees, dated April 4, 2020, which "highlighted that 'a policy of not taking non-customers might create heightened risk of disparate impact on minority and women-owned businesses.'" The report continued: "Nonetheless, Citi proceeded to limit its lending program to existing customers."4 It also recorded that "Citi was the only bank that failed to produce data regarding the average time from application to funding, asserting that it did not collect that information in the normal course of business."4 The Subcommittee's findings carry no penalty. The finding reached Citigroup's 2021 proxy statement, in a shareholder proposal for a racial equity audit.5

The profits pledge

Citigroup's quarterly report for June 30, 2020 said that "Citi is donating the net profits earned through its participation in the Paycheck Protection Program to the Citi Foundation," with initial proceeds of $25 million going to a program supporting community development financial institutions.6 Its annual report for 2020 put the total at "$50 million in proceeds from its participation in the U.S. Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)," which the foundation "deployed … to support Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the U.S."7 The filings do not give the fees or the costs the net figure was measured against. On the model, the SBA owed Citibank $118.4 million for its 2020 loans.1

The agents

Service providers who said they had helped clients get PPP loans sued Citigroup Inc. and Citibank, N.A. with six other lenders in the Central District of California in April 2020, in American Video Duplicating Inc. v. Citigroup Inc.8 On November 16, 2020 Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed the amended complaint, writing that it "appears every court that has decided this issue has held that the CARES Act does not require lenders to pay agent fees absent an agreement to do so." The plaintiffs later stipulated to dismissal.910 The Agents Got Nothing follows the rest of those suits.

Sources

Notes

  1. SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data, release of Sept. 30, 2024, loans with Citibank, N.A. as originating lender, priced under 85 FR 20811, 86 FR 3692 and 86 FR 3712; see the lender page. Original: SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (original: data.sba.gov · stored capture) ↩
  2. SBA interim final rule, Paycheck Protection Program, 85 FR 20811 (Apr. 15, 2020). ↩
  3. Fortune, "Meet the one-branch bank that did more PPP lending than Citi" (July 15, 2020). Original: https://fortune.com/2020/07/15/ppp-loans-bank-fintech-cross-river-citi/ ↩
  4. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, staff report, "Underserved and Unprotected" (Oct. 2020), pp. 6–7 and 15. ↩
  5. Citigroup Inc., 2021 proxy statement (DEF 14A). Original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/831001/000120677421000735/citi3828191-def14a.htm ↩
  6. Citigroup Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. Original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/831001/000083100120000078/c-20200630.htm ↩
  7. Citigroup Inc., Form 10-K for 2020. Original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/831001/000083100121000042/c-20201231.htm ↩
  8. Class action complaint, American Video Duplicating Inc. v. Citigroup Inc., No. 2:20-cv-03815 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 27, 2020). Original: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.780998/gov.uscourts.cacd.780998.1.0.pdf ↩
  9. Order granting defendants' motions to dismiss, American Video Duplicating Inc. v. Citigroup Inc. (C.D. Cal. Nov. 16, 2020), Doc. 131. Original: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.780998/gov.uscourts.cacd.780998.131.0.pdf ↩
  10. Joint stipulation of dismissal, American Video Duplicating Inc. v. Citigroup Inc. (C.D. Cal. Feb. 2, 2021). Original: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.780998/gov.uscourts.cacd.780998.137.0.pdf ↩
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