Bangladesh Bank To Meet With NY Fed Over Pilfered $81 Million

Bangladesh Bank will meet with New York Federal Reserve officials on July 15 in a bid to speed up efforts to trace money stolen from its account in February, two bank officials told Reuters. The meeting is a follow-up to the May talks in Basel where the Fed and SWIFT had agreed to help Bangladesh recover the cash.

The central bank of Bangladesh lost $81 million when hackers sent fraudulent messages via SWIFT network and wired out the amount from its New York Fed account. Most of the money remains untraceable and "disappeared" into casinos in the Philippines, Reuters reports. The bank said SWIFT left security loopholes in its system when connecting the bank to its real-time gross settlement system last year, but SWIFT has disputed that charge.

The July meeting will include discussions on future arrangements involving Bangladesh Bank’s deposits in New York, the bank officials said.

Read full report on Reuters.