Tribunal upholds age discrimination claim against Citibank

Ageist comments made by senior managers, low numbers of older senior staff, along with a lack of evidence that the bank took age discrimination or the claimant’s specific concerns seriously, persuaded the Employment Tribunal that Citibank had discriminated against a 55-year-old it made redundant. Lessons should be learned from this recent non-financial misconduct case, writes Denis O’Connor.

Denis O’Connoris a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. He was a member of the British Bankers’ Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group’s board and editorial panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

An Employment Tribunal has ruled [1] recently that Citibank unfairly dismissed and discriminated on the grounds of age against 55-year-old Niels Kirk when the bank made him redundant from his post of chair and managing director of the bank’s energy and natural resources division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa after a senior manager allegedly told him he was “old and set in his ways”. The ET verdict, if upheld following an appeal by Citibank, could represent another case of non-financial misconduct that the Financial Conduct Authority may consider reflective of wider issues within the bank concerning a poor culture towards good customer outcomes.