The American bank Citigroup has been fined 61.6 million pounds, or 72.3 million euros, by British financial regulators after a trader at the bank accidentally entered a billion-dollar order, leading to a plunge on European stock markets.
The so-called ‘fat finger‘ error caused a short-lived crash on European stock markets on May 2, 2022, at one point wiping out 300 billion euros in stock market value.
The crash was caused by a London trader from Citigroup. He wanted to sell $58 million in shares, but due to a typo that turned into an order for $444 billion. Part of the order could be stopped, but 1.4 billion dollars worth of shares were suddenly sold.
According to British regulators, the order could only be partially stopped due to errors in Citigroup’s trading platform. “The Financial Conduct Authority – the UK regulator of the financial markets – expects share trading firms to have effective systems and controls in place to prevent mistakes such as these,” the regulator said.