Citigroup’s eighty one trillion dollar error shocks the financial world

Folks, buckle up. You won’t believe this. Citigroup, yes that Citigroup, almost made a mistake that could make your head spin.

Imagine accidentally hitting a few extra zeros when you’re paying a bill. Annoying, right? Multiply that by, oh, about a trillion. That’s what happened at Citigroup.

The Whopping Error

The story goes like this: Back in April, someone at Citigroup was supposed to credit a customer $280. Simple enough. Except. .. they accidentally credited $81 TRILLION.

Yes, you read that right. Trillion. With a “T. ”

How Did This Happen?

Apparently, the error slipped past not one, but two employees. Can you imagine that meeting? Luckily, a third employee caught the mistake about 90 minutes later. Phew!

Think about it: $81 trillion is more than the entire GDP of the United States. It’s even bigger than Citigroup’s own market value. Crazy, right?

No Harm, No Foul?

Good news: no money actually left the bank. A Citigroup spokesperson called it an “inputting error” and said it didn’t affect anyone. They also told Business Insider that a transaction that huge couldn’t have actually gone through.

Still, it’s a little unnerving, isn’t it?

Not Their First Rodeo

Here’s the kicker: this isn’t the first time Citigroup has had a major “oops” moment. Apparently, they had ten “near misses” of $1 billion or more last year.

Remember that time in 2020 when Citigroup accidentally sent $900 million to Revlon’s creditors? It took them two years to get most of that money back. Yikes!

What’s Being Done?

Citigroup says they’re working on automating their processes to prevent these kinds of mistakes from happening again. They want to get rid of manual entry, which, let’s be honest, sounds like a good idea.

Other Banks Too

Citigroup isn’t alone. Even JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the U. S. , got fined earlier this year for not having enough oversight on their trades.

The Takeaway?

What’s the moral of the story? Even the biggest companies make mistakes. But when those mistakes involve trillions of dollars, it’s definitely something to talk about. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!