A transaction error by Citigroup , a banking institution in the United States led to an accidental deposit of $81 trillion into a customer’s account instead of the intended $280.
News About Nigeria learnt that the mistake occurred in April 2024 and was initially overlooked by two employees before being processed the following day.
It was later detected by a third employee about an hour and a half after processing, leading to a reversal within a few hours.
According to reports, the error did not result in any money leaving the bank.
The mistake was classified as a “near miss” and was promptly disclosed to U.S. financial regulators, including the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
A Citigroup spokesperson explained that while a payment of such an enormous amount could never have been executed, internal monitoring systems quickly detected the discrepancy between the bank’s ledger accounts.
“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.
“Our preventative controls would have also stopped any funds leaving the bank.”, the spokesperson said.
The bank assured that its control measures would have prevented any funds from being withdrawn, and the issue was promptly corrected.
Citigroup has faced similar transaction errors in the past.
In 2024 alone, the bank recorded ten near misses involving amounts exceeding $1 billion, an improvement from the 13 cases reported in the previous year.
The financial institution has since been working to strengthen its internal safeguards to prevent such errors in the future.
