The payroll accounts of employees at the City of Zurich got an unexpected bumper boost following a technical error. Yet the joy over the apparent payday blessing will be short-lived.
Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB) mistakenly paid double salaries for the City of Zurich due to a technical processing error. The misstep was revealed in a joint communique by the city’s finance department and the state-owned institute on Monday.
Dozens of Millions of Francs Too Much
The salary payment for the month of February was triggered twice on Monday morning at Zuercher Kantonalbank, according to an error analysis.
We’re not talking trifling sums either. Around 175 million Swiss francs were transferred by mistake to the 30,000 municipal employees. Double session attendance fees were also paid to members of the city parliament, newspaper «Tages-Anzeiger» (paid article) reports.
Solution Sought for Repayment
But the potential joy from the unexpected salary boost will be short-lived. The employees at the City of Zurich must repay the amount, the communication says. This is likely to be much less fast than the erroneously triggered transfer. According to the communique, the bank is working with the city of Zurich on a straightforward reimbursement of the duplicated transfer.
The two parties promised on Monday all city employees would be «promptly informed» about the details of any repayment. ZKB has also apologized to the municipal employees «for the inconvenience caused.»
Blue Giant Left Red Faced
Swisscom also had to apologize during the course of the day, «NZZ» (paid article) reports. The telecom provider handles the technical processing of payment transactions for ZKB. «Blue giant» Swisscom was forced to admit that the processing error was triggered by a supplier’s software.
