Oct 8 (Reuters) - Citigroup's ( C/PN ) lawyers have urged
U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken to dismiss a suit filed in
January by Attorney General Letitia James, which accuses its
Citibank unit of failing to reimburse customers who fall victim
to online scammers, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The lawyers said the bank has robust and extensive
procedures to protect consumers from being scammed into making
fraudulent transfers, the report added.
James, New York state's attorney general, sued Citibank unit
in January, alleging that its lax security protocols allowed
scammers to gain easy access to users' accounts and steal their
deposits through unauthorized wire transfers.
She stated that "Citi's negligence" had cost customers in
the state millions of dollars.
The Bloomberg report added that Citi said U.S. banks will
have to make a "dramatic shift" in how electronic payments are
processed if New York state wins the lawsuit.
Citi urged a federal judge in April to dismiss the lawsuit,
saying that the proper standard from the Uniform Commercial
Code, which all U.S. states use, excuses banks from covering
losses if in good faith they adopt commercially reasonable
security measures to verify customer identities.
Citigroup ( C/PN ) and James' office did not immediately respond to
Reuters' requests for comment.