US Fed responsible for missing US$100m, Bangladesh says

[DHAKA] The US Federal Reserve is responsible for at least US$100 million stolen from Bangladesh's account, according to Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith.

Bangladesh plans a legal fight to retrieve the missing funds, Muhith told reporters in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday. Bangladesh's central bank said Monday that funds had been stolen from an account by hackers, and that it had traced some of the missing money to the Philippines, where it was working with local authorities.

"We kept money with the Federal Reserve Bank and irregularities must be with the people who handle the funds there," Muhith said. "It can't be that they don't have any responsibility."

A clear picture of the alleged misappropriation of funds has yet to emerge, in a case that appears to span the globe from Bangladesh to the US to the Philippines, an East Asian country with few economic ties to the South Asian nation.

A Federal Reserve Bank of New York spokeswoman said on Monday there was no sign its systems had been hacked after Bangladesh Bank reported the missing funds.

There is no evidence of any attempt to penetrate Federal Reserve systems in connection with the payments in question, and no evidence that any Fed systems were compromised, the spokeswoman said.

BLOOMBERG