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Report: Deutsche Bank accidentally transferred €21B to Macquarie Group in 2014

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Report: Deutsche Bank accidentally transferred €21B to Macquarie Group in 2014

Deutsche Bank AG accidentally transferred €21 billion to Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd. as collateral for an over-the-counter derivatives trade in March 2014, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. It was not the first time the German lender has reportedly made such a mistake.

The transfer was a result of a human error, while using a collateral management system, which requires at least two individuals to look at payments of certain sizes, according to the source. The error was quickly identified and while no financial harm was caused, it did catch the attention of the bank's board and regulators, resulting in an internal audit, the source added.

The source said the 2014 transfer mistake led to Deutsche Bank designing an improved monitoring system, where all transactions over a certain size were subject to increased scrutiny. However, the system failed to catch a similar blunder in March 2018, when the German bank mistakenly transferred €28 billion to an external account as part of daily derivatives dealings, according to another Bloomberg report.

That error, which CEO Christian Sewing attributed to the input of euros instead of yen, was also corrected immediately and did not damage Deutsche Bank's financials.