Ethiopia’s Bank Battles to recoup more than $40m Withdrawn by Customers Due To Glitch
Ethiopia’s biggest commercial bank is scrambling to recoup large sums of money withdrawn by customers after a systems glitch.
The customers discovered early on Saturday that they could take out more cash than they had in their accounts at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE).
More than $40m was withdrawn or transferred to other banks, local media reported and it took several hours for the institution to freeze transactions.
Much of the money was withdrawn from state-owned CBE by students, bank President Abe Sano told journalists on Monday.
Long lines formed at campus ATMs, with people withdrawing money until police officers arrived on campus to stop them.
At least three universities have released statements advising students to return any money not belonging to them that they may have taken from CBE.
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The bank assured that anyone returning money will not be charged with a criminal offence.
Mr Sano did not say exactly how much money was withdrawn during Saturday’s incident, but said the loss incurred was small when compared to the bank’s total assets.
He stated that CBE was not hit by a cyber-attack and that customers should not be worried as their personal accounts were intact.
At least three universities have released statements advising students to return any money not belonging to them that they may have taken from CBE.
Anyone returning money will not be charged with a criminal offence, Mr Sano said.
But it’s not clear how successful the bank’s attempts to recoup their money has been so far.
The student from Jimma University said on Monday he had not heard of anyone giving the money back, but said he had seen police vehicles on campus.
An official at Dilla University said bank employees were on campus collecting money that some students were returning voluntarily.
