Citigroup's Copy-Paste Error Almost Resulted In $6 Billion Transfer; Here's What Happened

Executives were already in talks with higher-ups and regulators about how to address the incident when news of the much larger mistake surfaced

Citigroup nearly transferred about $6 billion to a customer's account by mistake after an employee accidentally copied and pasted the account number into the field meant for the dollar amount. This near-miss occurred within Citigroup's wealth-management business, where the intended transfer amount was magnified by more than a thousand times, according to a Bloomberg report.

The error was discovered on the next business day, as per the report citing sources familiar with the incident. It took place in April, the same month another part of the bank mistakenly credited $81 trillion to a different client.

The wealth division’s mistake was reported to regulators, and within Citigroup, it led to visible frustration from Andy Sieg, who had only recently taken over as head of the unit, according to sources in the report.

Executives were already in talks with higher-ups and regulators about how to address the incident when news of the much larger mistake surfaced, providing some managers with a bittersweet sense of relief, reveals the report.

The firm has since implemented a companywide tool to help review large, unusual payments and transfers, claims the report.

Group's Statement

In a statement, Citigroup said it “promptly identified and corrected this inputting error, which had no impact to the bank or our client. In addition, we have implemented enhanced preventative measures which are consistent with Citi’s continuing efforts to eliminate manual processes and automate controls.”

These incidents underscore Citigroup's ongoing struggle to improve its risk management and controls, following regulatory penalties and restrictions due to its inadequate systems. In January, CEO Jane Fraser reduced a key profitability target, partly because the bank needed to allocate more funds to its "transformation" plan, which aims to overhaul operations and address concerns from regulators.

For anxious wealth executives, the error brought back memories of Citigroup’s infamous Revlon incident in 2020, when the bank mistakenly transferred over $900 million to creditors of the cosmetics company. The firm eventually recovered the funds after a lengthy legal battle lasting more than two years.