RCBC decision unethical: Muhith
BB ex-governor says Philippines bank liable to return heist money
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday termed as unethical the decision the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) of Philippines took against returning the money stolen from the Bangladesh Bank (BB) account.The minister also expressed hopes that the Philippines government and their central bank would take steps to recover the amount.
Ethically it is not a sound decision (of RCBC) . . . from ethical point of view it is not right . . . not appropriate, he told reporters at the secretariat.
Muhith also rejected a RCBC demand seeking disclosure of Bangladesh governments investigation report on the reserve heist saying it will be published in time.
Meanwhile, former BB governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday said Bangladesh should put pressure on the Philippine government to get back the heist money from the RCBC.
The RCBC is clearly liable to return the money because the bank punished its officials relating to the heist, he added.
He further said BB should disclose its probe report, which would make it easier to put pressure on the bank. Bangladesh should urge the central bank of the Philippines to intervene in the matter. He wondered why BB was not making the probe report public.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) asserted on Tuesday that it was not aware how hackers were able to steal USD 81 million from a Bangladesh Bank (BB) account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The lender said as such it has no liability whatsoever to pay back the money to the central bank of Bangladesh.
The RCBC is not the proximate cause of the theft. They have no case against us. BB was the one that was negligent. We, therefore, urge BB to be transparent to the Philippine government, which has done so much to help them, and show us who really stole from them, RCBC external counsel Thea Daep said in an e-mailed statement.
The lender noted numerous reports quoting Bangladeshi officials and the initial findings of BBs own investigation, indicating that hackers got help from BB insiders. Shortly after, BB decided to abort its investigation, which raises a lot of questions, to say the least, Daep noted. The embattled lender has no plans of paying the BB any amount, the lawyer emphasised, noting that the RCBC was a mere recipient of the funds that went through three layers of highly protected financial institutions including the New York Federal Reserve, SWIFT and three global banks that eventually made the money transfers.
Bangladeshs ambassador to the Philippine, John Gomes, has been unfairly using the media to pressure the Philippine government and make it its own collection agent, and in the process is creating an undue and unnecessary adverse public portrayal of the RCBC and by extension, the local banking sector, Daep noted.
Ambassador Gomes has blamed everybody but [BB] for its loss, she said.
She dared the regulator to produce the results of its own investigation, even the initial findings, to help shed light on who the perpetrators were. This will be critical in helping the global banking sector protect itself, she said.
