Ethiopia’s commercial bank erroneously gives millions in ATM glitch
Ethiopia’s bank glitch allowed customers to withdraw millions of money. The incident happened on Saturday, March 16, 2024, when people discovered that they could withdraw more than what they had in their accounts. The news was first quickly circulated within three universities and before the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia could notice, a whooping USD 100 million had been withdrawn or transferred to other banks, reports have said.
On Monday, March 18, CBE president Abe Sano told reporters that more than 490,000 “unhealthy and illegal” transactions were made during the glitch period.
“There have been attempted cyber attacks but the bank’s cyber security was not compromised,” the CBE president said.
He also revealed that the glitch occurred because they were carrying our innovations for seamless transactions but for a missing code that was not used, pushing a hole in the system, and thereby allowing free transactions.
The CBE has called on all who carried out the transactions to return the money, promising they will not be prosecuted. But customers who made high transactions were reported to the authorities.
The CBE also played down the effect it may have on their bank, saying the cost is not much compared to the assets they have.
Some universities have sent words to students to return the money collected.
