Customers withdrew 400 crore rupees due to the bank’s error – 2024-03-20 16:54:31

Due to a technical glitch in the bank’s system, customers have withdrawn huge amounts of money, which are not accounted for. Recently, this unexpected incident happened in the East African country of Ethiopia. Customers have withdrawn more than Tk 400 crore from the country’s largest commercial bank, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE).

CBE customers discovered at midnight last Saturday (March 16) that they were able to withdraw more money than they had in their accounts, the BBC reported. The word spread like wildfire through messaging apps and phone calls to consumers, especially university students.

According to local media reports, customers took advantage of technical glitches to withdraw more than USD 40 million (at least Tk 438 crore) from CBE or transfer it to other banks.

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It took several hours for the authorities to suspend these transactions. By that time a huge amount of money was lost. Most of them are taken by students. CBE President Abe Sano told reporters on Monday.

Long queues formed at the ATM booths in the campus area after news of the system glitch spread. A student said that people were withdrawing money from the ATM booth until the police came and closed it.

The student of Jimma University Institute of Technology said he did not believe at first when friends told him that large sums of money could be withdrawn from ATM booths or transferred using the bank’s app.

Another student at Dila University in southern Ethiopia said some of his classmates withdrew money from CBE between midnight and 2 a.m. local time.

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Established 82 years ago, the bank currently has more than 38 million customers.

Ethiopia’s central bank said in a statement on Sunday that an “error” had occurred at the bank “during maintenance and inspection activities”. However, the central bank did not say how much money CBE lost due to this error.

The CBE president also did not specify how much money was raised in Saturday’s incident. However, he claimed that the amount of loss is small compared to the total assets of the bank.

Reassuring customers, Abe Sano said CBE was not the victim of any cyber attack. Everyone’s account balance is intact.

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At least three universities have issued statements instructing them to return money withdrawn due to a glitch in the bank’s system. The CBE president said no criminal charges would be filed against anyone who returned the money.

However, it is not sure how successful their efforts are. The student of Jimma University said that he had not heard that anyone had returned the money. But saw the police car in the campus.

KAA/