Swift asks clients to share data on system attacks

London

INTERNATIONAL financial messaging service Swift told clients to share information on attacks on the system to help prevent hacking, after criminals used Swift messages to steal US$81 million from the Bangladesh central bank.

Early last Friday, Reuters reported that Wells Fargo, Ecuador's Banco del Austro (BDA) and Citibank, whose managing director at Franchise Risk & Strategy, Yawar Shah, is Swift's chairman, did not inform Swift of an attack last year in which more than US$12 million was stolen from BDA.