Bank employee accidentally transferred $295M when he fell asleep at his computer

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100806314

by sinnerswing • 13 years ago

1 1 13 years ago

ghshephard• 13 years ago

Something isn't quite write about this article. I have a close friend who works at Wells Fargo in the HNW (High Net Worth) department. A large portion of her day is moving around large sums of money for customers (say, when they are trying to buy a yacht or jet - seriously), and, when they are investing in very short-term instruments (in which the timing of the withdrawal/deposit, down to the hour, is very important).

The process of moving more than $1mm of money around (as she describes it) is byzantine, ludicrously manual, and involves advance planning as well as lots of layers of oversight. She actually will know a day in advance if such-and-such a customer will be sending money from one account to another, and almost has a flight plan laid out for all the things they have to do.

Either this German Bank allows individual employees, much, much more autonomy (and not just for $1mm, but $295mm!) than Wells Fargo or there is more to this story...

Bank employee accidentally transferred $295M when he fell asleep at his computer

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