If you’ve ever had a bad day at work, take heart that it probably wasn’t as bad as this.

Someone at Citibank okayed a transfer of almost $1 billion by mistake.

And now, a judge has ruled that $500,000 of that does not have to be returned.

The US District Court judge ruled that despite committing one of the ‘biggest blunders in banking history’, the bank cannot recover the money accidentally sent to Revlon’s lenders.

Citibank, Revlon’s loan agent, intended to send around $8 million in interest payments to the cosmetic company’s lenders, CNN reported.

But instead, the whole loan of almost 100 times that amount was repaid, including $175 million to a hedge fund.

In total, the money mistakenly wired totalled $900 million.

A day later, the problem was realised and an alert sent out to try and recover the cash – but it was too late to get back all of it.

In August, Citibank took legal action to try and get the money bank from 10 investment advisory firms.

Revlon lenders defended not paying the money back as they said they thought it was sent intentionally, which is a defence under New York law.

The money sent was the amount ‘to the penny’ that was owed them by Citibank, but the loan was not yet set to mature.

A court document said: ‘To believe that Citibank, one of the most sophisticated financial institutions in the world, had made a mistake that had never happened before, to the tune of nearly $1 billion — would have been borderline irrational.’

Benjamin Finestone, representing two lenders, Brigade and HPS Investment Partners, said: ‘We are extremely pleased with Judge [Jesse] Furman’s thoughtful, thorough and detailed decision.’

Nail-biting internal conversations between employees at HPS were considered by the court, dated the day after the error:

DFREY5: I feel really bad for the person that fat fingered a $900mm erroneous payment. Not a great career move . . . .

JRABINOWIT12: certainly looks like they’ll be looking for new people for their Ops group

DFREY5: How was work today honey? It was ok, except I accidentally sent $900mm out to people who weren’t supposed to have it

DFREY5: Downside of work from home. maybe the dog hit the keyboard

JRABINOWIT12: the song “Had a Bad Day” playing the background

The lenders are banned from spending the money until an appeal can take place.

Citigroup said: ‘We strongly disagree with this decision and intend to appeal. We believe we are entitled to the funds and will continue to pursue a complete recovery of them.’

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