The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order against Citigroup Global Markets Inc over accusations the company's underwriting business willfully violated record-keeping requirements.

Citigroup, without admitting or denying the findings, agreed to the order and agreed to pay a $2.9 million penalty, according to an SEC statement.

The SEC said that "from at least 2009 through May 2019, CGMI used an unsubstantiated and unverified method to calculate and record indirect expenses associated with its work as an underwriter." For at least a decade, the unit "did not know the basis of this indirect expense calculation method and conducted no review" to verify whether the method was reliable.

Citigroup declined to comment on the matter.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil, Dan Whitcomb and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Jonathan Oatis)