Citigroup made a significant error last April when it mistakenly credited a customer’s account with $81 trillion, instead of the correct amount of $280. The transaction, which went unnoticed by a payments employee and a second official responsible for reviewing it, was processed the next day. The mistake was eventually caught by a third employee about 90 minutes after the transaction was completed, and the funds were reversed several hours later.
No money was actually transferred out of Citigroup’s accounts, and the incident was classified as a “near miss”—meaning the wrong amount was processed but later corrected. Citigroup reported the mistake to both the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
In a statement, Citi assured that its internal controls quickly detected the error between two ledger accounts and reversed it, emphasizing that the incident had no financial impact on the bank or the client.
Citi also disclosed that there were 10 other near-miss incidents involving sums of $1 billion or more in the past year, down from 13 the previous year. The bank did not comment on this specific figure.
In response to ongoing concerns about operational risks and regulatory compliance, Citi’s CFO Mark Mason said last month that the bank is making increased investments to address its risk management and data governance challenges. This includes efforts to improve the quality of information used in regulatory reporting.
Citi has faced regulatory penalties for failing to resolve these issues, including a $136 million fine last year for insufficient progress, and a $400 million fine in 2020 for similar failures in risk management and data handling.
