Mexico banking system missing $18M

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's banking system has somehow misplaced between $18 million and $20 million in electronic transfers between banks, authorities said Monday, the latest in a series of embarrassing breakdowns that have affected debit card purchases and e-payments across the country.

Mexico's central bank and regulatory agencies said they are not sure whether the problem with settlement transactions among banks was the work of outside hackers, an inside scam or errors.

But in a country where phishing emails and freelance debt collectors often use banks' logos and letterheads, it is no secret that bank security standards are lax.

Depositors won't be affected, but the banks themselves could take a hit on the missing money.

"This is a tough lesson that these standards must be tightened," said Mario Di Costanzo, who heads the government commission to protect financial customers.

It wasn't exactly clear how the shadow transaction occurred. Di Constanzo said only that "the identity and recipients of some transactions made through the SPEI (Mexico's official electronic payment system) have not been identified.

Business on 05/15/2018

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