In what could only be described as the banking equivalent of a comedy of errors, Citigroup narrowly avoided crediting an account with a staggering $81 trillion.
To put that into perspective, this colossal amount is roughly five times the total wealth of the UK, estimated at €14.7 trillion by the Office for National Statistics in 2023. Imagine being able to buy Elon Musk’s assets 200 times over—quite the shopping spree!
The Financial Times reports that this laughable yet serious error took place when a Citigroup employee, dealing with a system glitch, used a backup screen to transfer $280 (€269). Unfortunately, this rarely-used screen came with a peculiar quirk: the amount field was pre-filled with 15 zeros. As fate would have it, the zeros weren’t deleted, resulting in the mind-boggling figure.
Luckily, a vigilant third employee spotted the mistake 90 minutes after the transaction, and the payment was promptly reversed. No funds left the bank, whose market value of around $150 billion (€144 billion) pales in comparison to the erroneous amount. This incident was classified as a “near miss” by Citigroup, meaning the error was caught before any financial loss occurred.
Citigroup assured the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that its “detective controls promptly identified the inputting error.” The bank emphasized its ongoing efforts to automate controls, aiming to eliminate manual processes that could lead to such entertaining blunders.
This incident is not an isolated event. According to the Financial Times, Citigroup recorded 10 similar errors of $1 billion or more last year, and 13 the previous year. The bank’s history of mishaps includes a notorious $900 million accidental transfer to Revlon, which resulted in a lengthy legal battle and the departure of then-CEO Michael Corbat.
While this banking blooper had no lasting impact, it serves as a humorous reminder of the importance of checks and balances in financial operations. As Citigroup continues to refine its processes, the rest of us can chuckle at the idea of an $81 trillion error and perhaps breathe a sigh of relief that our own mistakes aren’t quite so grand.