fat-finger error: a keyboard error made when the originator of the message or transaction presses the wrong key or keys; often referring to the cause of a significant error in a finance or securities transaction.

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[Deutsche Bank AG] inadvertently transferred 28 billion euros ($35 billion) to one of its outside accounts, Bloomberg News has revealed.

While the blunder was quickly reversed and caused no financial harm, it’s a stark reminder of the vulnerability of even the most sophisticated financial firms. . . .

Fat-finger incidents are common within banks but automated controls should prevent their execution,” said Michael Huenseler, a portfolio manager at Assenagon Asset Management, which owns Deutsche Bank stock. “The shocking amount in the case of Deutsche Bank points to deficiencies in the bank’s IT functionalities, which lends new weight to Kim Hammonds’s critical remarks and raises urgent questions about the potential costs of changing the systems.”

See article at: William Canny, “Deutsche Bank’s Bad News Gets Worse With $35 Billion Flub,” Bloomberg, April 19, 2018

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One of the world’s largest “fat-finger” errors is creating more problems for Samsung Securities Co., a stock-trading arm of South Korea’s Samsung conglomerate and one of the country’s largest brokerages.
. . .
The fiasco unspooled last Friday, when a Samsung Securities employee caused the firm to pay out a massive dividend in the form of its own shares to 2,018 employees who were members of a company stock-ownership scheme.

The dividend was supposed to be 1,000 won ($0.94) per share. But the employee mistook the form of measurement, confusing won and shares. The error caused Samsung Securities to issue a dividend that was 1,000 times the value of each share held by the group of employees.

In all, the company deposited 2.8 billion shares worth 111.8 trillion won ($104.8 billion) into employee accounts—more than 30 times the company’s existing issued shares.
. . .
“We will actively compensate investors who suffered as a result of the temporary sale,” the Samsung Securities spokeswoman said Tuesday, adding that the firm has also launched an investigation to review its systems and internal controls. The Korea Securities Depository said Tuesday that all problematic transactions involving Samsung Securities shares had been resolved.

See article at: Eun-Young Jeong, “A $105 Billion ‘Fat-Finger’ Accident Is Samsung’s Latest Headache,” The Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2018

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In a day short of major U.S. data, the bond market was jolted during the midmorning session as talk circulated in the market that an investor made a mistake—known as a “fat finger” error—on a trade inquiry, according to several traders and dealers.
. . .
[A]n investor intended to sell $6 million in 10-year Treasury notes but mistakenly put an inquiry of $6 billion to some dealers. The error was spotted and the trade didn’t go through, according to the primary dealers.
. . .
Fat finger” trade typically means a trader pushes a wrong key or sequence of keys.

See article at: Min Zeng, “Treasurys Shed Gains as “Fat Finger” Error Gets Caught,” The Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2011

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