Citigroup Accidentally Transferred $81 Billion to a Customer’s Account

Mistakes like this should not happen… The American bank Citigroup mistakenly credited one of its customers with $81 billion instead of $280, according to an article by the Financial Times published on February 28, 2025. The erroneous transfer, which occurred in April of the previous year, went unnoticed by both a Citigroup employee responsible for payments and another tasked with verifying transactions before approval. A third employee detected the payment 90 minutes after the transfer. The transaction was canceled a few hours later, as per an internal document obtained by the Financial Times. This massive transfer appears to have been caused by a data entry error and a cumbersome user interface system. The bank informed the French News Agency that such a payment could not have been made since it did not possess those funds. In an email today, Citigroup assured that their verification checks quickly identified the error between two City accounts and canceled the transfer. The bank added that their mechanisms would also have prevented the money from leaving the bank. “Although there were no consequences for the bank or our customer, this incident underscores our ongoing efforts to eliminate non-automated processes and automate controls,” stated the bank. Citigroup informed U.S. financial authorities about the mistaken transfer, referring to it as an “avoided accident” according to a source cited by the Financial Times. In July 2024, the bank was fined $135.6 million by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for insufficient progress in internal control and risk management areas.