Securities Investigation: Citigroup AutoCallable Equity Linked Securities Linked to the Worst Performing of Amazon.com, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Walmart Inc. 

Have you suffered investment losses in Citigroup Autocallable Equity Linked Securities Linked to the Worst Performing of Amazon.com, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Walmart Inc.? If so the securities attorneys at the White Law Group may be able to help you with recovery options.  

Citigroup Global Markets Holdings Inc. sponsors various structured notes such as Citigroup AutoCallable Equity Linked Securities Linked to the Worst Performing of Amazon.com, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Walmart Inc. Due December 19, 2022. 

According to its prospectus, Citibank’s Autocallable Contingent Coupon Equity Linked Securities are high risk investments, “significantly riskier than an investment in conventional debt securities.”  

Structured note returns are based on, among other things, equity indexes, a single equity security, or 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. 

Some common types of structured notes sold to individual investors include: principal protected notes, reverse convertible notes, enhanced participation or leveraged notes, credit linked notes, constant proportion debt obligations, constant proportion portfolio insurance, FX and commodity linked notes, market linked notes, and hybrid notes that combine multiple characteristics. See: Structured Note Products Lawsuits – Securities Fraud Attorneys

Potential Lawsuits to Recover Investment Losses 

The White Law Group is investigating the liability that brokerage firms may have for recommending complex, often extremely high-risk, structured notes.  With the market in turmoil, many investors who purchased such investments believing they provided downside protection or were akin to bonds because of the dividend component are instead finding that these products can indeed suffer enormous losses. 

Brokers often pitch structured products, as providing “downside protection” against losses to a related index while allowing modest upside gain potential. Of course, this is only true if the value of the index doesn’t fall below a predetermined price. If the price falls below that point, the losses in structured notes can still be huge. 

These products 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). 

Brokerage firms have two main duties in recommending structured callable 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. 

If you have suffered losses investing in Citigroup Autocallable Equity Linked Securities Linked to the Worst Performing of Amazon.com, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Walmart Inc. you may be able to recover your losses through FINRA arbitration. For a free consultation with a securities attorney, please call the White Law Group at 888-637-5510. 

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. 

For more information on The White Law Group, visit https://www.whitesecuritieslaw.com.