American Citigroup Inc. mistakenly credited $81 trillion to a client's account instead of $280 in April last year, the Financial Times writes, citing informed sources.
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Bank error
The error in the internal bank transaction was missed by both the person responsible for payments and the auditor, and the payment was approved for processing at the beginning of the next business day.
The problem with the balance of funds in the account was discovered by a third employee 90 minutes after the payment was made. Several hours later, the transaction was cancelled, and no funds disappeared from the bank.
Citi reported the incident to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
The bank said that “through detection controls, the entry error between two Citi ledger accounts was quickly identified and we reversed the entry,” and that because of these controls, “no funds would have left the bank.”
“The incident did not result in any consequences for either the bank or the customer, but highlights our ongoing efforts to further automate controls and eliminate manual processes,” Citi said.
Last year, Citi recorded 10 cases in which the bank processed an erroneous payment of $1bn or more but ultimately returned the funds, according to an internal report seen by the FT. There have been 13 such cases in 2023. They are not required to be reported to regulators.
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