<div>Citigroup Inc's consumer bank has been ordered to pay $700 million in relief to borrowers for illegal credit card practices, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.</div><div> </div><div>The CFPB, set up under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act aimed at reforming Wall Street, has been cracking down in recent years on credit card companies offering payment protection, credit score tracking and other add-on products.</div><div> </div><div>Citi will also pay civil penalties of $35 million each to the consumer finance watchdog and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.</div><div> </div><div>The settlement is the CFPB's tenth such case, Director Richard Cordray said in a statement on Tuesday.</div><div> </div><div>"They (the CFPB) are just marching through the industry," FBR & Co financial policy analyst Edward Mills told Reuters.</div><div> </div><div>"The CFPB loves to have big numbers like this, especially when the largest percentage of the fine goes back to customers because there's a lot of (political) push-back about the cost of the CFPB and the way they're funded."</div><div> </div><div>Other major U.S. banks under that have been fined over credit card misconduct include JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Fine Details</strong></div><div>Tuesday's settlement is about 1 percent of the bank's estimated revenue for 2015, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.</div><div> </div><div>"Citi is fully reserved to pay costs associated with the agreements," the bank said in a statement.</div><div> </div><div>As of May 21, Citi had paid out over $17 billion in fines and settlements since the financial crisis.</div><div> </div><div>The CFPB said that about 7 million customer accounts were affected by Citibank's "deceptive marketing" practices, which included misrepresenting costs and fees and charging customers for services they did not receive.</div><div> </div><div>A Citibank unit also "deceptively" charged nearly 1.8 million consumer accounts often unnecessary same-day payment fees while collecting payments, the CFPB said.</div><div> </div><div>Citi said it had been issuing refunds and had stopped selling products that were part of its agreements with the regulators, including credit monitoring and debt protection products.</div><div> </div><div>Capital One Financial Corp, American Express Co and Discover Financial Services are among other card issuers that have been fined by the CFPB since 2012.</div><div> </div><div>Citi shares were up 0.5 percent at $59.13 in late afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.</div><div> </div><div>(Reuters)</div>
