Payments
Judge dismisses Citi ATM fee racial bias suit
April 4, 2025
A Florida judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Citi that alleged racial discrimination. The lawsuit argued that Citi was committing racial discrimination by waiving ATM fees for account holders at nonwhite-owned banks but not white-owned banks, according to a report by Yahoo! Finance.
Citi first instituted this policy in 2016 through its ATM Community Network, and it also waived out-of-network fees that banks may charge in certain cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City.
The plaintiffs claimed that this policy violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the California Unruh Civil Rights Act.
Judge Raag Singhal stated that the plaintiffs were not harmed by the policy, and that the program required that Citi have an agreement with the minority-owned institution, rather than a customer.
"The barrier for Plaintiffs here is not purportedly discriminatory criteria for Citibank's policy, but rather that their preferred banking institution has not enrolled," Singhal wrote. "The decisionmakers for these institutions have agency to decide to join Citibank's initiative — and thus an essential role in determining whether Plaintiffs could receive the fee waiver — which Plaintiffs are too eager to gloss over."
