Citigroup executives are increasingly optimistic they can complete the compliance work tied to the bank’s major regulatory consent orders later this year, according to Reuters.

The potential completion, and eventual lifting, of the consent orders would be a major shift for Citi after six years of intensive remediation work involving thousands of employees. The lender’s regulatory woes stem from 2020, when the bank was ordered to address longstanding risk-management and data-governance deficiencies identified by the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Reuters said. 

The compliance shortcomings led to a $400 million fine that year and an additional $136-million penalty in 2024 for failing to address data-management problems quickly enough.

Since then, the bank has made steady progress on bolstering its compliance controls, according to CEO Jane Fraser, who told analysts last month that approximately 80% of Citi’s remediation work has been completed, Reuters said. CFO Mark Mason told investors in January that Citi is likely to spend less on compliance work this year than it did in 2025, according to the report.

An individual who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity said that some Citi executives have begun communicating to clients that they expect the consent-order work to be completed this year. A second source said the bank is preparing for fewer regulatory restrictions in 2026, which could help Citi return closer to business as usual and shift attention away from “transformation” work tied to the consent orders.

Even if Citi finishes its internal remediation, the fixes will still require sign-off from regulators at the Federal Reserve and OCC, however. That process could take additional time and potentially delay the termination of the regulatory orders, the news outlet noted. 

Read more at Reuters