Parijat
Saha, a school teacher in India, checked his balance to find almost $10
billion in there due to a bank error. Parijat Saha, an Indian school
teacher, got quite a surprise when he checked his bank statement on
Sunday: he was a billionaire. Saha, who expected to find about 10,000
rupees ($200) in his account, was shocked to find a $9.8 billion balance
instead.
“I
called up a friend in the bank and joked, maybe money is overflowing in
your bank, that’s why your system has remitted so much money into my
account,” Saha told BBC News.
The
government-run State Bank of India (SBI), whose motto is “Safe Banking
with SBI,” has not explained what happened. Sources told the BBC that
the funds were “uncleared” and that Saha could not have withdrawn the
money even if he had tried. However, the amound still remains on his
balance, according to the BBC.
SBI is the largest banking and financial services institution in India, according to the International Business Times.
The
bank’s regional headquarters in Calcutta and national headquarters in
Mumbai have been alerted of the mistake, and officials are still
scrambling to figure out what went wrong, sources in the bank told the
BBC.
“I
have been specifically asked not to comment on this issue,” Subhashish
Karmakar, chief manager of the bank’s branch in Balurghat, told the BBC.
Saha’s
monthly salary as a teacher is about 35,000 rupees ($700), according to
the BBC. However, the account balance of $9.8 billion is closer to
India’s entire annual education budget, which is $11.5 billion.
