‘No escape’ for Ethiopia bank clients after glitch let customers withdraw millions

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) customers rushed to take out money, or transfer it to other accounts. It took several hours for the state-owned bank to freeze transactions. Those who do not return money that is not theirs will be prosecuted, warned CBE president Abe Sano. A CBE employee said it was harder to find money transferred to other banks than to trace sums moved to another CBE account.

Mr Abe said the audit was being done because some of the 10,000 customers who retrieved money during the glitch conducted legitimate transactions. A total of 490,000 transactions had been made before the problems were noticed, he said. News of the glitch spread across universities - largely via messaging apps and phone calls. Long lines were seen at campus ATMs on Saturday morning.

Mr Abe previously said anyone returning money would not be charged with a criminal offence. On Wednesday he told the BBC that some of the excess money has already been handed in. More than 38 million people hold accounts at CBE, which was established 82 years ago. Mr Abe told a press conference that customers who had not withdrawn extra money should not be worried as their personal accounts were intact.

Another student, who attends Jimma University Institute of Technology, said he did not believe it was true when his friends told him on Saturday.