Citi fined after $1.4bn of equities sold in error

Citi has been fined more than £60m by regulators after a trading error led to more than $1bn worth of stock being accidentally sold.

A Citi trader accidentally created a $444bn basket of equities instead of a $58m one in May 2022.

While the bank’s internal controls blocked some of the sale, $189bn still progressed to its trading algorithm, and $1.4bn was sold before the trader could cancel the order. 

“This coincided with a material short-term drop in some European indices, which lasted a few minutes,” according to a 22 May notice from the Financial Conduct Authority.

The FCA has fined the bank £27.8m and the Prudential Regulation Authority £33.9m.

“While parts of [Citi’s] trading control framework operated as [Citi] expected, some primary controls were absent or deficient. In particular, there was no hard block that would have rejected this large erroneous basket of equities in its entirety and prevented any of it reaching the market,” the FCA’s notice reads.

Source: REUTER