Citigroup suffered a technology glitch at the height of the market panic over coronavirus that left it relying on the grace of an exchange clearing house to prevent the bank from defaulting on margin payments for derivatives contracts.
The bank had a problem with payments technology that meant it was late to meet a margin call from a US clearing house run by Intercontinental Exchange in March 2020, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Derivatives executives told the FT that malfunctions leading to missed margin calls are rare but not unheard-of. The incident highlighted the extent to which the financial system was under stress during the market sell-off at the onset of the pandemic.