CitiFinancial Statement on Lost Data Tapes

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 6, 2005--CitiFinancial has begun mailing the below letter to 3.9 million CitiFinancial Branch Network customers whose personal information was on computer tapes that were lost by UPS while in transit to a credit bureau. The tapes contained information about CitiFinancial branch network customers in the United States as well as customers with closed accounts from CitiFinancial Retail Services. The tapes did not contain any customer information from CitiFinancial Auto, CitiFinancial Mortgage or any other Citigroup business. CitiFinancial said it had no reason to believe that this information has been used inappropriately, nor has it received any reports of unauthorized activity. Furthermore, there was no information on these tapes relating to customers of the CitiFinancial network operations in Canada or Puerto Rico.

"We deeply regret this incident, which occurred in spite of the enhanced security procedures we require of our couriers," said Kevin Kessinger, Executive Vice President of Citigroup's Global Consumer Group and President of Consumer Finance North America. "There is little risk of the accounts being compromised because customers have already received their loans, and no additional credit may be obtained from CitiFinancial without prior approval of our customers, either by initiating a new application or by providing positive proof of identification. Beginning in July, this data will be sent electronically in encrypted form."

“We deeply regret this incident, which occurred in spite of the enhanced security procedures we require of our couriers”

"We are making every effort to ensure that our customers are aware of what we are doing and what we suggest they do to protect their identity. We are committed to ensuring that our customers have the support they need to monitor their credit and know how to respond should they identify any problems," said Mr. Kessinger.

"Customer security is of paramount importance to Citigroup," said Debby Hopkins, Chief Operations and Technology Officer of Citigroup. "While this incident affects the customers of only one of our businesses, we put significant effort into assuring that our data protection procedures meet and exceed industry standards at all of our businesses, and are reviewing the issues here as part of this ongoing effort."

CitiFinancial

CitiFinancial provides community-based lending through more than 1,800 branches in the United States and distributes a wide variety of consumer loan products and services including real estate, personal loans and loans to finance consumer goods. CitiFinancial is part of Citigroup (NYSE: C), the preeminent global financial services company.

Citigroup

Citigroup (NYSE: C), the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage, and asset management. Major brand names under Citigroup's trademark red umbrella include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex, and Travelers Life and Annuity. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com.

Dear Customer,

We are writing to let you know that computer tapes containing personal account and payment history information about your loan were lost recently while in the possession of a third-party courier. We have no reason to believe that this information has been used inappropriately and we have not received any reports of unauthorized activity regarding your credit or loan.

You should know that there is little risk of your account being compromised because you have already received your loan. No additional credit may be obtained from CitiFinancial without your prior approval, either by initiating a new application or by providing positive proof of identification. That said, we deeply regret that this situation occurred and want you to know that there are steps we are taking and some steps that we suggest you take to monitor your credit and protect you from identity theft.

First, we initiated an investigation of this incident as soon as we were made aware of it, and alerted law enforcement. The situation arose during the routine shipment of computer tapes to a credit bureau. The tapes contain names, Social Security numbers, account numbers and payment history of CitiFinancial customers. We and other lenders provide this information each month to credit bureaus to ensure that your credit report remains accurate and up-to-date. We send the information via nationally recognized couriers and require them to use enhanced security procedures to transport the tapes from our data center to the bureaus. Nonetheless, during a recent delivery, one of these couriers lost one box of tapes. Beginning next month the information we provide to credit bureaus will be sent via direct encrypted electronic transmission.

Second, CitiFinancial has arranged for you, at your option, to enroll in a credit monitoring service at no cost to you for the next 90 days. You will not be billed for this service. Once you enroll, our service provider will notify you of activity on your Equifax credit report. To start your enrollment, call 1-888-469-8603 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday (EDT).

Third, prior to this incident, we had already enrolled you in Citi(R) Identity Theft Solutions, a free service from CitiFinancial, to help protect you from identity theft. To find out more, click on Products & Services at the top of our website: www.citifinancial.com.

Finally, it is important to regularly review activity on your accounts. If you discover any suspicious activity, be sure to report it immediately to CitiFinancial. It is also good practice to obtain your credit report periodically from one or all of the national credit reporting agencies. If you think identity theft or fraud has been committed, or if you have any questions, please stop by your local branch or call our dedicated information security hotline at 1-866-452-2484. The hotline is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. (EDT).

You also have the right to place a fraud alert on your credit report by contacting the credit bureaus. You should review the tips and information included with this letter about how you can protect yourself from identity theft, place a fraud alert or request a free copy of your credit report. It also includes information on who to contact in the event that you believe identify theft has been committed.

Please know that we regret any inconvenience or concern this incident may cause you. Be assured that we will take whatever steps are necessary to protect confidential customer information, and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Information Security Director

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