Citigroup recently experienced a series of errors that have raised concerns about the bank’s risk management and internal controls. In one incident, a Citigroup employee almost accidentally credited $6 billion to a customer’s account. The error occurred when the employee copied and pasted the account number into the field meant for the dollar amount.
The near-miss was detected the next business day and reported to regulators. Citigroup has since implemented a tool to help screen large, unusual payments and transfers. In another incident last week, Citigroup accidentally credited $81 trillion to a customer’s account instead of the intended $280.
It took hours to reverse the transaction.
Citigroup’s costly transfer mistake
Both errors happened in April, and the process involved in the first incident has now been fully automated.
These mistakes come as Citigroup works to address compliance issues and improve its risk management procedures. In January, the bank lowered its 2026 profitability target to invest more in addressing these problems. Citigroup has faced regulatory penalties in recent years for risk management and data governance failures.
In 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve fined the bank $400 million. Last year, regulators imposed an additional $136 million fine for insufficient progress in resolving these issues. Citigroup’s finance chief, Mark Mason, acknowledged that the bank is investing more to tackle its compliance challenges.
The recent errors highlight Citigroup’s ongoing need to strengthen its internal controls and risk management practices to prevent future incidents and maintain the trust of its customers and regulators.
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