SunTrust glitch turns customers into instant, but temporary, billionaires
A few SunTrust customers got quite a jolt when they checked their bank accounts recently.
Their accounts had mysteriously ballooned to nearly $89 billion. That’s right, billion, with a B.
The riches, alas, were fleeting, the result of a computer glitch late last week, SunTrust spokesman Barry Koling said. All accounts were quickly restored to their accurate, and more earthly, levels, he said. None of the phantom money appears to have been spent or transferred.
“We had a glitch, and it was fixed,” Koling said. “We are committed to maximizing the wealth of our clients, but this is not the typical way we go about doing it.”
Koling said he didn’t know how many accounts were affected. SunTrust, based in Atlanta, is Georgia’s largest bank and serves markets stretching from Maryland to Florida.
SunTrust traced the problem to an error in the bank’s balance reporting system, which resulted in some accounts being filled with multiple 8s.
One affected customer, Paul Fischer of Orlando, admitted to fantasizing about what to do with the money.
“You say, ‘Eighty-eight billion, what can I do with that?'" Fischer told the Orlando Sentinel. “Maybe a handful of us could have brought down SunTrust Bank."
He’s right. At today’s stock price, Fischer could have bought SunTrust outright and still had more than $75 billion to play with. If only the money was real.
