

Bank employee accidentally transferred $295M when he fell asleep at his computer - sinnerswing
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100806314

======
ghshephard
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...

