The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has firmly denied reports of a massive internal theft involving over 7.7 billion Ethiopian birr (approximately $56 million), insisting that its internal systems successfully stopped the fraud attempt before any money was lost.
Following media reports alleging a coordinated scheme involving CBE staff, public servants, and private businesses to illegally transfer billions of birr—4 billion of which were reportedly sent to the well-known coffee exporter Kerchanshe Trading Plc—the state-owned bank issued a statement on Wednesday refuting these claims.
CBE emphasised that “a suspicious transaction was detected within minutes of the attempt” and maintained that “no money was stolen.”
Suspects arrested
A number of suspects had been arrested and were being investigated by law enforcement, the bank said, adding that it had stopped the operation before any financial harm was done.
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According to CBE, the incident was not a technical malfunction or cybersecurity breach but rather a deliberate attempt by a small group to gain unauthorised access to internal funds.
“The attempt was not an attack on our bank’s system, but rather an effort by a few suspects to gain undue advantage,” the bank stated.
Previous cybersecurity incidents at CBE
CBE has a history of scrutiny over internal controls and fraud. In March 2024, the bank acknowledged losing more than six billion birr due to a “system failure” that allowed 490,000 illegal transactions in a single day.
Additionally, a 2022 Ministry of Justice report revealed that CBE was responsible for nearly half of Ethiopia’s banking fraud losses from 2018 to 2022—amounting to roughly 900 million birr out of 1.8 billion birr in total fraud losses.
The 2023/24 Financial Stability Report from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) revealed that sector-wide fraud losses rose from 1 billion birr to 1.3 billion birr in the previous year. Because of its dominant position in the market, CBE was being targeted by fraudsters.
CBE currently serves over 38 million account holders and holds more than 60 percent of the country’s total deposits.
CBE’s system responsiveness
In its statement, CBE pointed to the recent incident as evidence of the responsiveness and effectiveness of its internal controls.
“CBE is a regular target for attempted fraud, like any large financial institution,” the bank noted, adding that the invident underscores the efficiency and promptness of its monitoring systems.