Citigroup Nearly Made $6 Billion Transfer Error Due to Copy-Paste Mistake

Citigroup (NYSE:C) nearly transferred $6 billion to a customer’s account in its wealth-management division due to a copy-paste error, Bloomberg News reported. The mistake happened when a staff member accidentally pasted an account number into the dollar amount field. The issue was detected the next business day and reported to regulators.

The error, linked to an internal fund transfer, prompted Citi to implement a tool to detect large, unusual transactions. This incident follows another reported mistake in April, where Citi erroneously credited $81 trillion instead of $280 to a customer’s account. The bank reversed the transaction within hours.

Citi has faced ongoing regulatory scrutiny over risk management and data governance. In 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve fined the bank $400 million for compliance failures. Last year, regulators imposed another $136 million penalty for insufficient progress in addressing these issues.

In January, Citi lowered its 2026 profitability target to manage rising regulatory costs. Finance Chief Mark Mason emphasized the company’s increased investment in compliance improvements. The latest automation of processes aims to prevent similar financial errors in the future.