Citigroup to Pay $7 Million Over Incomplete 'Blue Sheet' Data

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) has agreed to pay $7 million and admitted to wrongdoing to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges the financial services firm gave the agency incomplete "blue sheet" information.

A computer coding error was in software Citigroup used from May 1999 to April 2014 to process the agency's requests for blue sheet data. Blue sheets include the time, type, volume, and prices of trades, among other information. In using the software with the error, the SEC said, Citigroup omitted 26,810 transactions in more than 2,300 blue sheet requests.

"We are pleased to have resolved this matter," a Citigroup spokeswoman said when asked about the situation.

"Broker-dealers have a core responsibility to promptly provide the SEC with accurate and complete trading data for us to analyze during enforcement investigations," said Robert A. Cohen, co-chief of the SEC enforcement division's market abuse unit. "Citigroup did not live up to that responsibility for an inexcusably long period of time, and it must pay the largest penalty to date for blue sheet violations."

Citigroup didn't report the incident to the SEC or try to produce the omitted data until nine months after discovering the error.

Citigroup's shares have risen 3.4% over the past three months. The company's stock is up 2.5% in early afternoon trade Tuesday to $43.35.