"Pulled Out 19 Billion"... People Flocking to the Money-Giving 'Hoengjae ATM'

"If Money Is Not Returned by the 30th, Legal Action Will Be Taken"

An incident occurred at Ethiopia's largest bank where customers were able to withdraw more money than their account balances, resulting in residents including university students withdrawing approximately 19 billion won worth of funds.

On the 28th, AP News and others reported, "Between the night of the 15th and the early morning of the 16th, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), a state-owned commercial bank, experienced an error during a system update that allowed customers to withdraw or transfer more money than their balances." The bank resolved the issue within six hours of its occurrence, but by then, 811 million birr (approximately 19.2 billion won) had already been withdrawn or transferred via ATMs and other means.

ATM. [Image source=Pixabay]

The reason the damage amount was so large was that the news of this 'windfall error' quickly spread through social networking services (SNS), especially among university students. As a result, some universities publicly urged their students to return the cash.

Abiy Sano, President of CBE, stated that about 78% of the transferred damage amount had been recovered by the 26th, and warned that the names and account information of about 5,000 people who have not yet returned the money would be disclosed online. President Sano particularly criticized university students for sharing the error news on SNS, saying they bear significant responsibility for theft.

CBE also issued a statement on the 27th, warning, "If the money is not returned by the 30th, legal action will be taken," and added, "The personal information of the customers involved may also be disclosed."

The bank clarified that this issue was not caused by a cyber hacking attack. The problem occurred during the system update and inspection process, and there is no additional risk to individual accounts or the overall system.

This is not the first ATM error incident. In November last year, an ATM error occurred in the UK where twice the requested withdrawal amount was dispensed. At that time, an error at a National Westminster Bank ATM on East Ham High Street in London caused a sudden crowd of dozens of people to gather. National Westminster Bank quickly launched an investigation and confirmed the error in a statement the following day.