Citigroup Mistakenly Credits $81 Trillion to Customer’s Account in Processing Error
Citigroup mistakenly credited a staggering $81 trillion to a customer’s account instead of the intended $280, according to a report by the Financial Times on Friday. The error, which occurred in April, was later reversed within hours.
According to the report, the mistake initially went unnoticed by a payments employee and a second worker before being processed the next day. It was only discovered by a third employee an hour and a half after execution, prompting corrective action to reverse the transaction several hours later.
Despite the massive amount involved, no funds actually left the bank. The incident was classified as a “near miss” and reported to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
“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,” a Citigroup spokesperson stated. “Our preventative controls would have also stopped any funds leaving the bank.”
Citigroup clarified that the error did not impact either the bank or the customer.
The bank has been working to improve its internal controls, as it recorded 10 near-miss transactions of $1 billion or more in 2024—down from 13 such incidents in the previous year, according to an internal report cited by the Financial Times.
