What Happens When Your Bank Drops Millions into Your Account?

Reuters
Alexander Abad-Santos 3,970 Views May 4, 2012

From what happened to one German business man, it sounds like you can actually keep some of it. Sweet. So we've all had the dream of our bank accidentally depositing tons of money into our account, right? Well, it actually happened to one Michael H. (as German media refers to him) whose bank Comdirect accidentally boosted his account by €200 million--€10 million of which he moved to a different account. Because this isn't the movies, Comdirect got it all back but there's still the matter of, according to figures from German outlet Die Welt, around €12,000 (about $15,736) in interest made overnight. Apparently, the bank had taken that sum out of Michael's account and Michael had sued for it back. 

The Local, an English-language German news site, points out that Comdirect took the money out as part of the 14.4 percent interest they were charging him. Yeah, we know, 14.4 percent?  Obscene interest rate aside, the case was taken to court where it was decided that the bank should be the ones paying Michael: "€12,000 – plus the interest it accrued over the last year." So all in all, €12,000 and some change over a banking error?  Not bad. But it isn't quite €200 million ... oh and you guess it, Comdirect is appealing the decision.

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