CitiFirst Dual Directional CoBA Notes

Securities Investigation: CitiFirst Dual Directional Barrier Securities Linked to the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust 

Did your broker recommend investing in CitiFirst Dual Directional Barrier Securities Linked to the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust? If you have suffered investment losses, you may have recovery options through FINRA arbitration. 

Citifirst’s Coupon Barrier Autocall Notes or “CoBa Notes” are structured note investment products sponsored by Citigroup Global Markets. According to its prospectus, CoBa Notes are highly risky, complex investments. It is possible you could lose some or all of your investment.   

According to the CoBa Notes sales material, while there may be a benefit to investing in these offerings, such as “unique risk/return profiles to match investment objectives,” there is a very long list of risks, including the following:  

• Possible loss of entire investment 
• An investor’s appreciation may be limited by a maximum amount payable or by the extent to which the return reflects the performance of the underlying asset or index. 
• All payments on CitiFirst Structured Investments are dependent on the applicable issuer’s ability to pay all amounts due on these investments 
• Investments are illiquid and there may not be a secondary market when you are ready to sell 
• Resale Value of a CitiFirst Structured Investment May be Lower than Your Initial Investment 
• The amount you receive at maturity could depend on the Volatility of the Underlying Asset or Index 

Structured Notes Lawsuits – Help for Investors 

Structured notes are securities issued by financial institutions such as Citibank, whose returns are based on, among other things, equity indexes, a single equity security, a basket of securities.  The return on an investment in a structured note is “linked” to the performance of a specific referenced asset or index.  Structured notes have a fixed maturity and include two components – a bond component and an embedded derivative.  Financial institutions typically design and issue structured notes, and broker-dealers, often for a large commission, sell them to individual investors. 

With the market in turmoil, many investors purchased these investments believing they provided downside protection or were similar to bonds because of the dividend component, instead finding that these products can suffer enormous losses.   

Brokers often pitch structured products as providing “downside protection” against losses to a related index while allowing modest upside gain potential. However, investors in Structured Note products are finding out that the protection offered is limited and insufficient to ward off enormous losses.   

These products also typically pay a high fee to the financial advisors that sell them. Sometimes these structured products can have misleading names like market linked certificates of deposit (CDs).   

To learn more about the risks of investing in Structured note products please see: Structured Note Products Lawsuits – Securities Fraud Attorneys or Are Structured Notes Worth the Risk?   

The White Law Group is investigating the liability that brokerage firms may have for recommending complex, often extremely high-risk, structured notes to investors.     

Brokerage firms have two main duties in recommending structured notes linked to equity investments or indexes.  First, brokerage firms are required to perform adequate due diligence on any product they recommend. Second, brokerage firms are required to ensure that all recommendations made are suitable for their client in light of the client’s age, investment experience, net worth, income, and investment objectives.   

If a brokerage firm fails to do either of these things, the firm can be held responsible in a FINRA arbitration claim.   

Unfortunately for investors there are literally hundreds of structured products currently being offered by financial institutions, each with their own underlying risk based on whatever they may be linked to.   

Recovery of Investment Losses through FINRA Arbitration   

If you have suffered losses investing in CitiFirst Dual Directional Barrier Securities Linked to the SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust, you may be able to recover your losses through FINRA arbitration. FINRA operates the largest securities dispute resolution forum in the United States, and has extensive experience in providing a fair, efficient and effective venue to handle a securities-related dispute. Arbitration and mediation are two non-judicial ways to resolve problems and disputes.    

For a free consultation with a national securities attorney, please call the White Law Group at 888-637-5510. For more information on The White Law Group, visit http://whitesecuritieslaw.com.   

 The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Seattle, Washington.