Bangladesh Bank Staff Involved In Swift Heist?

The recent Swift attack against a Bangladesh bank has left a lot of people wondering how such a heist could take place to begin with. Some experts even pointed at how bank personnel would have to be involved. Albeit the official report has not been released yet, more and more signs are also pointing in that direction.

The Bangladesh Swift Breach

As soon as news broke about the involvement of a Bangladesh bank in the Swift heist, the local government ordered an investigation into the matter. With US$81m stolen, it is clear the attackers must have had help from someone familiar with the system. Or according to some people, they had contacts within the bank itself.

Reuters is indicating there is even more evidence pointing towards that same conclusion, albeit the government has yet to release the official report. So far, the Bangladesh Bank has always denied being involved in this matter. Instead, they blamed the Swift network itself as well as the US Federal Reserve Bank.

At the time of writing, the Bangladesh Financial Minister had received the report and is currently going over the results. Various sources indicate it will take another two to three weeks until the findings are made public. However, it seems there is evidence pointing towards the involvement of bank staff in the heist.

Very few people appear to be aware of how the assailants attempted to transfer as much as US$951m to bank accounts in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Most of these transfers were blocked, but four transfers went through, resulting in US$86m in losses. Albeit the bank, Federal Reserve, and Swift failed to notice the breach in time, it appears there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than ultimately assumed.

Regardless of what the outcome may be, Swift will not be able to dodge their responsibilities in this breach. The payment network made some capital mistakes when they established a local network in Dhaka, Bangladesh. However, the payment network keeps denying any allegations regarding issues on their end.

Source: Reuters

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