Last April, Citigroup accidentally credited $81 trillion to a customer’s account instead of just $280. Two employees initially overlooked it, but it was spotted 90 minutes later.
According to CNBC, The Financial Times first reported this on February 28, and it was reversed several hours later and reported to the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a “near miss.”
They had 10 near-misses of $1 billion last year
Near misses happen when a bank processes the wrong amount but manages to recover the funds. According to the report, the bank had 10 near misses of $1 billion or more last year and 13 the year before.
They neither confirmed nor provided comment on the number of near misses it has experienced.
“Despite the fact that a payment of this size could not actually have been executed, our detective controls promptly identified the inputting error between two Citi ledger accounts, and we reversed the entry,” they said.
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They accidentally credited $900 million in the past
The incident is the latest blunder from the Wall Street bank, which has been dealing with a string of operational slip-ups in recent years.
“Our safeguards would have stopped any money from actually leaving the bank. While there was no impact on us or our client, this just shows why we’re pushing so hard to cut down on manual processes and automate controls,” Citi said.
Citi has been trying to clean up its reputation ever since it accidentally sent $900 million to Revlon creditors five years ago, a mistake that led to the exit of former CEO Michael Corbat, massive fines, and regulatory orders demanding fixes.
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