The US bank Citigroup credited a client’s account with $81tn when it meant to send $280 – before the “fat finger” error was caught.
US bank meant to send $280 but no funds were transferred despite ‘fat finger’ mistake.
A Citi spokesperson said: “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.
It took two years of legal battles for the bank to recover much of the money from several hedge funds, and the saga contributed to the departure of the Citigroup chief executive, Michael Corbat.
The sum would be more than enough to buy the entire US stock market, including all of the big tech companies, at a healthy premium.
