Citigroup mistakenly deposits $81 trillion into a customer’s account

Citigroup made a mistake depositing $81 trillion into a customer’s account last year when it intended to send just $280.

The Financial Times said the payment, which was made in April, went through two employees but was discovered 90 minutes after it was posted. It was reversed several hours later and reported to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a “near miss.” The incident is the latest blunder to be exposed by the Wall Street bank, which has struggled to overcome a series of operational glitches in recent years.

“Despite the fact that a payment of this magnitude could not have actually been made, our forensic controls immediately identified the entry error between two accounts, and we reversed the entry,” Citi said in a statement to NBC News.

“Our preventative controls would also have prevented any funds from leaving the bank. While there was no impact to the bank or our client, this episode underscores our ongoing efforts to continue eliminating manual processes and automating controls through our transformation.

The bank had 10 near-term fraud incidents that resulted in losses of $1 billion or more last year and 13 the year before, according to the report.

The bank has been struggling to repair its reputation since it mistakenly sent $900 million to creditors involved in a controversial battle over Revlon cosmetics group’s debt five years ago — leading to the ouster of former CEO Michael Corbat, as well as large fines and regulatory consent orders requiring Citi to fix the issues.