The messages sent by Bangladesh Bank to stop its millions from being transferred to the Philippines has been branded ‘ambiguous’ by Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC).
Published : 12 Apr 2016, 11:53 PM
The legal chief of the Filipino bank at the centre of the $81 million heist appeared before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for a hearing in Manila on Tuesday, reported local media.
Five fictitious accounts were opened at its branch in Makati City to facilitate the withdrawal of reserve money stolen by hackers from Bangladesh Bank’s account in the US in early February.
Macel Fernandez-Estavillo said the bank received ‘normal priority’ messages in its SWIFT system to stop transactions on Feb 9 and Feb 10 but thought they were from a regular bank.
“We didn’t know that they were the central bank of Bangladesh, we just thought they were a regular bank,” she said.
SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, is the messaging system used by banks worldwide to transmit funds.
She said the free-format messages or a MT999, back-to-bank texts, were among the 790 messages it had on a Tuesday that followed a three-day weekend for the Chinese New Year.
“Our officers proceeded to read the emails sequentially, unless we had a stop payment -- which would be the first that we would read -- or high priority messages, none of which applied to the Bangladesh Bank,” the Philippines daily Inquirer quoted Estavillo as saying.
She also said the bank could have stopped transactions if Bangladesh Bank had sent them a MT192, the code for a cancellation or recall order.
But her claim was refuted when the committee called an officer of Philippines central bank for SWIFT messaging.
"The best option for Bangladesh Bank is to send free format messages, which is what it did...But this doesn't mean messages from Bangladesh Bank are less persuasive. [RCBC] should check it," she said.
Cadapan also said the system would have automatically identified that the messages were from the central bank of Bangladesh by using an eight digit code.
Senator Teofisto “TG” Guingona, Chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee, was dissatisfied with the lack of measures by the RCBC which allowed the funds to be withdrawn despite the messages from Bangladesh.
“Had you opened the text, you would have been sufficiently alarmed. It does say ‘top urgent, top urgent’,” the lawmaker said while reading out the SWIFT message to the RCBC.
“I think that’s clear enough,” he said. “To me that’s pretty clear. I’m not a banker, but to me it’s pretty clear.”
Bangladesh Bank’s freeze orders on Feb 9 read, “Please be informed that this is a doubtful transaction. You are requested to stop the payment, and if you already made payment, then freeze the account of the beneficiary for proper investigation. We think the transaction is contradictory with the anti-money laundering law.”
The RCBC’s Estavillo said a message sent to them on Feb 10 had finally set the alarm off. Also a normal priority text, she said it provided a clearer warning.
“Top urgent. Please be informed that this is a fraudulent transaction and unauthorized access in our SWIFT system. So you are requested to stop the payment and if you have already made the payment, then freeze the account of beneficiary and please back the funds to the account number 21083190.”
But Deguito, who was also in the hearing, said she sought directives from her superiors on what to do with the funds that were flagged as suspicious.
She claimed RCBC treasurer Raul Tan told her in a phone call: “That’s not our problem. That’s the problem of Bangladesh.”