Ethiopian Bank glitch: Lucky customers withdraw millions

On 16th March, Ethiopia’s biggest bank - the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), which is the country’s financial sector's governing body, witnessed a glitch where customers saw that they could encash more money than they had in their accounts.

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia was established 82 years ago, and over 38 million people have accounts at this bank.

What is the Ethiopian Bank glitch?

Ethiopia’s state-owned CBE saw a system failure lasting for hours over the weekend. Taking advantage of this glitch, customers immediately made ATM cash withdrawals and bank transfers, totalling more than $40 million.

The bank took several hours to freeze these transactions. Experts ruled out the possibility of a cyber-attack behind this glitch.

Reason behind the Ethiopian Bank glitch

CBE released a statement on Sunday saying that the glitch occurred during "maintenance and inspection activities". The commercial bank reassured its customers, stating that this glitch resulted entirely from system security checks.

This incident was in no way a danger to the bank, its customers, and the entire financial system of the country.

Abie Sano, CBE’s president, mentioned at a press conference yesterday that a huge chunk of this cash was withdrawn by students. News of this glitch spread like wildfire through messages and phone calls.

Efforts to recoup the lost funds

The bank has formed a task force to recoup the funds, and a few students at universities have already been detained.

At least 3 universities have come forward encouraging these students to return this cash, and Abie Sano promised that those who return the money would not face any prosecution.

Clarity on how much money has been recovered by the bank is yet to be seen.