Citigroup intentionally discriminated against Armenian Americans when they applied for credit cards, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday, as some bank employees argued internally that Armenians were more likely to commit fraud and referred to applicants as “bad guys” or affiliated with organized crime.
The CFPB found that Citi employees were trained to avoid approving applications with last names ending in “yan” or "ian" — the most common suffix to Armenian last names — as well applications that originated in Glendale, California, where roughly 15% of the country's Armenian American population lives.
