Little Glitch, Large Amounts of Money Withdrawn from Ethiopian Banks
On Saturday, it was reported that more than $40 million was withdrawn or transferred from the Commercial bank of Ethiopia (CBE) due to a glitch in the banking system, according to reports.
Customers discovered that they were able to perform transactions with larger amounts than what was deposited in their accounts at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. The glitch lasted for several hours up until the financial institution managed to regain control by freezing the transactions.
According to the bank’s president Abe Sano, informed journalists in an interview on Monday, that students withdrew a large amount of the money.
On Monday, the president of the Commercial bank of Ethiopia, Abe Sano, informed journalists that students withdrew a large sum of money. The news of the glitch was shared amongst students through messaging apps and by phone calls.
It was reported that during the glitch, students formed long lines at university’s ATMs. Police officers arrived at the campus to stop students from withdrawing cash, with one student mentioning that they “did not believe it was true” and found it not feasible to withdraw money from ATM or transfer an amount through the bank’s application.
The reported amount of money withdrawn was about $40 million at Commercial bank of Ethiopia, which took the ban an estimate of 82 years to establish. Ethiopia’s Central Bank, the governing body of the country’s financial sector made a statement on Sunday stating, “a glitch” had occurred during “maintenance and inspection activities.”
The statement covered one aspect of the occurrence but not the other, mainly focusing on the interrupted services that took place after Commercial bank of Ethiopia took control and froze all transactions. It is worth noting that the statement didn’t mention anything about the money already withdrawn by customers.
Sano has yet to make a clear statement on the amount of money withdrawn but did specify that the loss was a small one in comparison to what the bank owns in total assets. He then continued to mention that it was not a cyberattack and reassured people about their bank accounts, as they were intact.
As for the students who had withdrawn money from the Commercial bank of Ethiopia due to the glitch, it was advised by Mr. Sano and their universities to return the money. Anyone who returned the money would not have charges pressed against them.
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