The bank is reportedly seeking to recover more than $40 million.
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Ethiopia’s largest bank, is facing major financial troubles after a technical glitch allowed customers to withdraw more money than they had in their accounts. According to the bank, the bank is currently attempting to recover a reported $40 million. BBC.
According to local media reports, university students were the first to exploit the glitch, spreading the news on social media and withdrawing large sums of money. The exact amount withdrawn remains unclear, with banks confirming only 500,000 transactions during the outage. However, local newspapers estimate the loss at about $42 million. news outlet.
Fortunately, Ethiopian authorities have ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack and attribute the incident to a failure to regularly update the system. Banking systems were shut down for several hours and customers were temporarily unable to withdraw cash while the issue was resolved.
Students in western Ethiopia say there were long lines at campus ATMs. BBC The Amharas withdrew the money until police arrived on campus and stopped them.
The Jimma University of Technology student said he was told by a friend at around 1am local time (10pm GMT) that he could withdraw large sums of money from an ATM, but “I didn’t think it was true.” Or use your bank’s app to send money.
Another student at Dira University in southern Ethiopia said many of his colleagues withdrew funds from CBE between midnight and 2pm local time.
Banking operations in Ethiopia were temporarily shut down for several hours to resolve the issue, leaving customers unable to withdraw cash. Ethiopian Commercial Bank was founded in 1963 and is the country’s largest bank serving a retail customer base of 40 million people.
