3 February 2017, 07:22 GMT
This mistake, which occurred in February, was apparently a result of a technical glitch which caused a single payment to be repeated multiple times.
According to a KfW statement cited by Bloomberg, the error was almost immediately identified by the bank staff and "the mistake was rapidly identified and eliminated" while "the amounts overpaid were successfully demanded back."
The total amount of money transferred was as high as 6 billion euros, the news agency added.
It should be noted that this is far from the first mistake of this sort KfW has made, as in September 2008 the bank, having failed to refresh its counterparty check, transferred over 300 million euros to Lehman Brothers just as the latter filed for bankruptcy. The issue became a political scandal in Berlin, while the newspaper Bild slapped KfW as "Germany’s dumbest bank."
