The Central Bank of India has recently given a public statement claiming that its Core Banking System (CBS) remains secure following a reported technical issue involving its localised Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) server interface. The bank has also reportedly filed a police complaint on October 22 alleging that Rs 13.97 crore was diverted through 187 unauthorised transactions between October 15 and 17. According to the reported details, the funds were transferred to 36 bank accounts, while the bank’s internal team could not trace the transactions in its records or banking channels. If you have a bank account in the Central Bank of India, then here is everything you should know about the incident.
According to reports, the Central Bank has recently confirmed that a technical issue was observed in the interface environment of its localised RTGS server. They also confirmed that the RTGS services had been fully restored for customers across all channels and no customer accounts had been impacted. In its October 19 stock-exchange filing, the bank described the incident as a ‘technical glitch’ in its RTGS outward system, said it had shut down and isolated affected systems, and said no customer had suffered financial loss.
Not only that, but the bank also clarified that its Core Banking System (CBS) remained entirely secure and safe. The statement doesn’t provide further details about the technical issue or explain how the alleged transfers took place.
Here is what the bank said in the reported statement: ‘We wish to clarify that there was a technical issue observed in the interface environment of localised RTGS server maintained at Bank’s end and no customer account is impacted. Also Our CBS System remains entirely secure and safe.’
The Central Bank of India has reportedly filed a police complaint with Maharashtra Cyber, on which an FIR was registered at Mumbai’s Nodal Cyber Police Station against unidentified persons, alleging that Rs 13.97 crore was taken from its settlement account with the RBI through 187 unauthorised transactions between October 15 and 17.
According to the complaint, unknown persons allegedly accessed the central SFMS server of Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS) through the bank’s own SFMS server, which is connected to its core banking system. According to the First Information Report (FIR), the money was transferred to 36 bank accounts.
However, the bank’s internal team could not trace any of the 187 transactions through its branches, internet banking, mobile banking, or any other banking channel linked to the Central Bank of India. The bank also could not find these transactions in its core banking system, RTGS settlement account, or SFMS server.
The complaint also states that the payer accounts shown in the transactions did not belong to the Central Bank of India. Furthermore, it also states that the SFMS database logs contained traces linked to 10 accounts, but the corresponding transaction IDs were missing from the bank’s records.