Westpac is calling for people to respect the privacy of an employee whose decimal point error led to a customer being able to access $10 million.
The employee, who reportedly had more than 30 years of banking experience, was so distressed by her error she was undergoing counselling.
The incident arose after Rotorua service station owner Leo Gao asked for a $100,000 overdraft. When the bank sought to formalise the overdraft, it mistakenly credited $10m instead of the $100,000.
Mr Gao then attempted to transfer amounts totalling around $6.7m but the bank managed to recover $2.8m.
He and his partner then left New Zealand, taking the woman's daughter. They are believed to be in China.
A Westpac spokesman said the bank as a whole was taking responsibility for the "overall failure of the processes that led to the overdraft limit being extended", and the details of the bungle were an internal matter for the bank to deal with.
The employee had the bank's full support, he said.
"Westpac New Zealand is very concerned about the attention being directed at individuals within the bank as a result of this episode, and the stress that puts them under. We ask that the privacy of individual employees is respected and make it clear that they have our full support as we look to move forward. The impact of this episode is being felt by all of our employees, who are good people just doing their jobs. What should be remembered is the loss from this episode did not happen because of the error, but because of the behaviour of individuals who have taken advantage of the error," he said.
The error was believed to have occurred when the woman missed out a decimal point, which then went unnoticed by her supervisor.
The bank was "continuing to vigorously pursue the outstanding amount of $3.8m".
Mr Gao and his partner, Kara Yang, are believed to be in Hong Kong with Ms Yang's seven-year-old daughter, Leena, and sister Aroha Hurring.
The Herald on Sunday reported Ms Hurring had told friends she was drinking Chinese beer, enjoying the heat of Asia - and planning on returning to New Zealand.
Ms Hurring, 22, has charted her and the fugitives' progress from New Zealand to Hong Kong, Macau and into mainland China on her Facebook page.
NZPA