C Citigroup Inc

By Emily Glazer and Telis Demos 

Citigroup Inc. has agreed to pay less than $100 million to settle a yearslong money laundering investigation, the bank and government agencies announced Monday.

The bank reached a settlement with the Justice Department and U.S. attorney's office in Boston for $97.44 million, with no sanctions against Citigroup and a so-called nonprosecution agreement, according to the bank and Justice Department. The investigation centered on activity in the bank's Banamex USA unit.

As part of the agreement, Citigroup admitted that Banamex USA violated the Bank Secrecy Act from at least 2007 until at least 2012.

The agreement is far less than previous money laundering settlements with large banks and is one of the first to emerge since the change in presidential administrations. Other deals with big banks have often topped $1 billion and involved so-called deferred prosecution agreements or criminal guilty pleas.

Citigroup said in a statement that it was "pleased to resolve these matters." The bank said it will be finished with winding down Banamex USA by June 30. "Among our most serious obligations as a bank is to achieve the strongest possible system for anti-money-laundering and sanctions compliance to protect the integrity of the financial system," the bank added.

Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com and Telis Demos at telis.demos@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2017 11:27 ET (15:27 GMT)

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