SWIFT plans measure to
help spot fraudulent bank transfers
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[September 20, 2016]
By Tom Bergin
LONDON (Reuters) - The SWIFT inter-bank
messaging network plans to send daily reports to clients to help
them more quickly identify unauthorized payment instructions like
those used by hackers to steal $81 million from Bangladesh’s central
bank in February.
Trillions of dollars worth of inter-bank payments are made each day
using SWIFT messages but the Bangladesh theft and others which have
came to light this year have knocked confidence in the supposedly
super-secure system.
SWIFT said in a statement on Tuesday that from December it would
begin sending 'Daily Validation Reports' to clients.
These would list the messages sent from the client's SWIFT terminal,
thus allowing a bank to spot any payment instructions that it had
not intended to send.
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The report will also contain a risk report aimed at showing whether
transfer instructions deviated from the client's typical payment
patterns.
In the Bangladesh heist and a $12 million theft from a Colombian
bank last year, hackers covered their tracks by deleting records of
fraudulent SWIFT messages they sent from the banks' terminals.
In both cases, it took days for the thefts to be discovered.
The new reports will be sent to customers’ payments and compliance
teams through a separate channel to the normal SWIFT terminal, so
that even if hackers have gained access to the terminal, the reports
will get through.
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![](../images/092016pics/busine39.jpg)
The SWIFT logo is pictured in this photo illustration taken April
26, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/Illustration/File Photo
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Some former SWIFT staff and clients say the Belgium-based
organization, a co-operative controlled by the biggest global banks,
have been slow to react to growing security risks in recent years.
SWIFT denies it overlooked risks around unauthorized access to
client terminals, saying it was up to banks to secure their own
facilities.
However, in June the co-operative launched a new 'Customer Security
Programme' and is in the process of developing new measures to help
clients, particularly smaller banks, ensure they are not victims of
hacking.
(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
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