Citi parted company with the nice woman leading its unpopular 'internal hit squad'
A controversial female figure has left Citi.
Citi is not commenting but sources at the bank say that Yamini Patel, Citi's head of investigations for the UK, Europe and Russia, left the bank a few months ago.
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Patel ran Citi's internal CSIS unit. Standing for 'Citi Security and Investigative Services,' the CSIS unit is an internal unit tasked with tackling wrongdoing at Citi. It was the subject of an article in the Financial Times earlier this week, in which Citi employees claimed that members of CSIS had interrogated them about internal complaints, and then used their testimony against them when they later took the bank to court.
“Citi’s CSIS operates as HR’s internal hit squad, highly trained to protect the firm at employees’ expense,” Citi MD Ardith Lindsey told the FT. Lindsey is suing Citi for sexism, harassment and assault while she worked there. The FT spoke to four current and former Citi employees who said they were summoned to CSIS after lodging whistleblowing complaints. Three said their interviews were subsequently used against them.
There is no indication of wrongdoing on the part of Patel, who colleagues say was both well liked at Citi and very good at her job. Nor is it clear whether the people complaining to the FT were interviewed by the European CSIS team. Patel didn't respond to a request to comment for this article. There are unconfirmed suggestions that her exit occurred as the bank cuts costs. If so, CSIS may be run by more inexperienced employees at Citi in the future.
Patel spent 12 years at Citi and was hired from Barclays. Citi's CSIS team globally is run by New York-based Robert Clarke, a former member of the City of London police.
Speaking to the FT, Citi said: "Our Security and Investigative Services team consists of highly experienced professionals whose responsibilities include supporting Citi disaster response efforts, protection for colleagues around the world and looking into certain concerns about colleague behaviour along a clearly laid-out set of guidelines.”
The bank added that it takes its responsibility for looking into conduct concerns seriously. "These situations are inherently challenging for those involved and we approach them with professionalism, integrity and empathy.”
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