Hanoi (VNA) – The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), a major bank of thePhilippines, had to shut down online transactions anꦚd automatic teller machines(ATMs) on June 7 after money went missing from accounts.

Although the banksaid it was just an internal computer error, the incident raised fear among customersthat the BPI was attacked by hackers. Customers of theBPI were shocked as they could not withdraw or send money in the morning ofJune 7. In a statement, the BPI said the problem was caused by an internal dataprocessing error. Thebank had to close all of its ATMs and asked eight million customers not to doany online transactions as it was trying to fix the problem. TheBPI affirmed that efforts to fix the glitch are progressing well and it isexpected to be solved in next few days, but the bank has yet to state itscause. Theproblem also doubled the value of some transactions from April 27 to May 3,while number of affected customers was unclear. BPIVice President Cathy Santamaria also warned customers not to post informationfrom their private bank accounts online and called for honesty of those who hadmoney mistakenly sent to their accounts. NestorEspenilla, incoming Governor of the central bank of the Philippines, said eventhough they accepted explanation of the BPI that no hacking was involved, thecentral bank would still conduct its own probe. Theincident occurred amid global concern about the attack of WannaCry malware lastmonth, which affected thousands computers worldwide.-VNA