Citigroup mistakenly credited one of their customers $81 trillion when it was initially supposed to be $280.
According to a report by the Financial Times, the fumble occurred last April after a payments employee and an official who monitored checks missed the error right before the transaction was cleared for processing the following day. Another employee caught on to the error nearly two hours after the payment showed up on the person's account and was reversed hours later.
The company reported the error as a "near miss" to the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which means when a bank processes the wrong amount, it can recoup the funds. This isn't the first time that Citigroup experienced a mishap like this as it has been dealing with operational errors for several years now.
Citigroup hasn't confirmed how many errors the company has experienced, but CNBC reported it had 10 near misses of $1 billion or more in 2024.
"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," Citi told NBC News in a statement. "Our preventative controls would have also stopped any funds leaving the bank. While there was no impact to the bank or our client, the episode underscores our continued efforts to continue eliminating manual processes and automating controls through our Transformation."
