Ethiopian bank publishes 567 names left, after 78% recovery of funds lost to technical glitch

The largest commercial bank of Ethiopia has recovered nearly 80% of its funds lost to the recent technical glitch on March 16, the bank’s president, Abe Sano told reporters on Tuesday.

The March 16 glitch exposed 801.4 million Ethiopian birr, about $14 million to theft as it led to approximately 25,761 unauthorised transactions (withdrawal).

Out of the total amount at risk, the bank has retrieved W662.9 million birr, $12 million.

The bank is actively pursuing the remaining 178 million birr, or about $3 million, and has put in place procedures to freeze these funds held in other banks, Sano said.

Following initial recovery operations, 10,727 customers with sufficient funds had 44.6 million birr (about $79,000) reclaimed. Of those with insufficient balances, 15,008 customers had 205.8 million birr (about $7 million) partially recovered.

5,160 people returned partial amounts and nearly 9,300 voluntarily returned the full amount. The president informed reporters that the bank is considering taking legal action because 567 clients have not yet returned the money.

Also, the bank has published the names of the 567 clients that are yet to return the money.

Preliminary results of the ongoing investigations into the system glitch points to  a recent system upgrade as the cause of the problem.

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