Bank of Maldives (BML) on Wednesday, assured its staff were not involved in cases where money from customer bank accounts have ‘vanished’.
Parliament’s State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Committee on Wednesday summoned officials from BML, Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), and Maldives Correctional Services to question them about the implementation progress of recommendations set forth by the committee in a 2023 report regarding the issue.
At the committee meeting, BML’s Director of Retail and SME Banking Moosa Nimal said there had been no indication of the bank employees’ involvement according to the investigation from relevant authorities.
Nimal also said that 1,400 scam cases were lodged with BML so far in 2024 alone, out of which 700 were reported during the second quarter, with only a few of them related to compromised internet or mobile banking logins.
He also that 39% of the cases of money loss were the result of account holders scammed into transferring into perpetrators’ accounts who impersonated family members or relatives via calls or hacking.
Another 35% of cases involved transfers to purchase products from various forums and marketplaces that were not delivered, with another 20% of cases of transfers to make foreign currency exchanges.
Nimal further affirmed the bank’s security systems have not been compromised in any of the instances.