BB server glitch halts interbank transaction
Banks have failed to settle transactions with other banks as the Bangladesh Bank’s relevant server was down for much of the banking hours on Monday, which is totally unacceptable for the ‘digital government’ tenure. Insiders said instant transactions of funds among banks, which are done through the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, could not be done, leaving many firms with unpaid bills and salaries.
Having failed to settle down, BB suggested making cheque payments and using the Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network (BEFTN) system, both of which are working as normal. RTGS accounts for most of the daily interbank transactions, so the problem in the system has struck most of the transactions, say bankers. According to BB data, RTGS accounted for 69 per cent of the total interbank transactions amounting to Tk 860,000 crore in May. Cheques and BEFTN accounted for the rest of the transactions. The glitch has also barred many companies from adjusting its loans.
Since the greatest heist at Bangladesh Bank by cyber attack, the country’s banking sector has not yet tightened its financial security. Experts opined Bangladesh Bank and other financial institutions need to devise a “Great Leap Forward” strategy to catch up with the modus operandi of cyber criminals and take advantage of the latest tools available to protect the system. To provide a secure payment experience while monitoring an exponential increase in transactions, we believe that more financial service providers will build new payment security solutions applying technologies such as AI and ML to automate risk detection.
The central bank and the country’s fintech specialists must work together to secure financial transactions and figure out smooth and secure transactions. By looking at what happened, and identifying the key weak points – in understanding vulnerabilities, maintaining security procedures, training employees, and testing processes – banks and non-banks financial companies can work to mitigate similar weaknesses in their own organisations.
