Citigroup Inc. plans to prohibit retailers that are customers of the bank from offering bump stocks or selling guns to people who haven’t passed a background check or are younger than 21.
The bank is imposing the restrictions on companies that use it to issue store credit-cards or for lending and other services, according to a memo Thursday. The lender also barred the sale of high-capacity magazines.
“The policy was designed to respect the rights of responsible gun owners while helping to keep firearms out of the wrong hands,” Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Mike Corbat said in the memo to staff. “It is clear to me that most people believe there are areas of agreement and practical changes we can make to find common ground.”
Citigroup is the first major banking institution to set restrictions on the firearms industry. Some retailers have already scaled back on the sale of firearms since the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school left 17 dead.
Corbat, who described himself as a responsible gun owner, said the bank would also engage with the few firearm manufacturers that are customers.
Industrywide Effort
Corbat also said the bank would encourage other financial services firms to find technology solutions or come up with voluntary standards that would push more change. The bank’s existing capabilities don’t allow Citigroup to pursue a more targeted approach at retailers’ point of sale, Ed Skyler, a spokesman for Citigroup, said in a separate blog post on the company’s website.
“We know our clients also care about these issues and we have begun to engage with them in the hope that they will adopt these best practices over the coming months,” Skyler said in the blog post Thursday. “If they opt not to, we will respect their decision and work with them to transition their business away from Citi.”
Mark Costiglio, a spokesman for Citigroup, declined to say how many or which clients might be impacted by the new restrictions.
Citigroup wasn’t involved on any debt offerings for publicly traded firearms manufacturers since the Newtown shooting in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And among the largest big-box retailers of guns -- a group that includes Bass Pro Shops and its subsidiary Cabela’s Inc., Big Five Sporting Goods, Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings Inc., and Orvis Co. -- Citigroup did not provide the financing for their co-brand or private-label credit cards.
Congressional Vote
Citigroup’s decision comes days before the March For Our Lives, a gun control rally organized by survivors of the Parkland shooting, and was applauded by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, an advocacy group.