In April of the previous year, a Citigroup employee mistakenly initiated a fund transfer of $81 trillion to a customer’s account, an amount that would have made them the wealthiest individual in history. The intended transfer was only $280. Citigroup’s market capitalization is approximately $150 billion, while the U.S. GDP is about $27 trillion, making the erroneous transfer amount larger than most developed economies combined. The bank’s automated systems halted the transaction, and no funds left the bank. A third employee noticed the error around 90 minutes after it occurred. Citigroup referred to the incident as a “near miss” in communications with regulators. According to an internal report, there were 10 such “near misses” of $1 billion or more at Citi last year, down from 13 the previous year. These incidents do not require regulatory reporting, so comprehensive public data on their frequency is unavailable. Citigroup has faced significant financial errors before, including a $79 million fine for causing a massive stock selloff in Europe due to an accounting error. — news from Gizmodo
