DHAKA: Bangladesh Bank is considering suing the Manila-based Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC) of Philippines over the heist of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank's account at the New York Federal Reserve.

BB authorities have already discussed the matter with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication) in this regard.
According to a report published in the international news-media, BB officials have talked with Federal Reserve Bank’s officials about the plan of filing the lawsuit. Two representatives of SWIFT were also present at that time.

It has been reported that a legal advisor of the BB suggested about the lawsuit against RCBC. Moreover, Federal Reserve Bank gave assurance to consider the matter after a formal written complaint is filed from Bangladesh Bank. 

Bangladesh Bank hopes that Federal Reserve Bank and SWIFT will be plaintiffs in the case. However, they have not given any statement about the lawsuit yet.

According to BB sources, the initial plan is to file a case by March-April 2018 in New York.

Bangladesh Bank executive director Subhankar Saha said he had no knowledge of any plans to sue RCBC but that efforts are ongoing to recover the entire stolen money.

The Bangladesh Bank heist, took place in February 2016, when instructions to steal US$951 million from Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, were issued via the SWIFT network. Five transactions issued by hackers, worth $101 million and withdrawn from a Bangladesh Bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, succeeded, with $20 million traced to Sri Lanka (since recovered) and $81 million to the Philippines (about $18 million recovered). The New York Fed blocked the remaining thirty transactions, amounting to $850 million, at the request of Bangladesh Bank.

Following the incident, Bangladesh Bank governor Ataur Rahman was forced to resign and major reshuffle was made in the senior level officials.

BDST: 2000 HRS, DEC 8, 2017
AP