Our attention has been drawn to a news item being carried by the media about some funds that have been siphoned from the vaults of GCB.

We wish to assure our loyal customers and the general public that there is no cause for alarm as no funds have been siphoned from the vaults of the bank. Our customers’ deposits are safe and the bank’s vaults are very secure.

The Bank noticed some unusual withdrawals over the counter by customers in certain branches and took immediate steps to confirm the genuineness of these transactions. In the process, the Bank arrested the culprits the same day (and some the following day) who are going through due investigative process. The Bank proactively reported the matter to the Police and EOCO and is collaborating with them to carry out further investigations into the incident.

To commence their investigations, EOCO issued a letter to the Bank, authorizing it to freeze the accounts on which the suspicious transactions had been carried out.

While this incident is unfortunate we are pleased with the speed with which the incident was detected and dealt with. We can also assure the general public and our customers that the Bank continues to invest in its Technology infrastructure to ensure that appropriate controls are in place to prevent or speedily detect any fraudulent activity as happened in this case.

The statement in the media that the incident occurred with the connivance of the Bank’s IT department has not been established. We would urge the media to collaborate with the law enforcement agencies in order not to jeopardise the investigative work being carried out.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our stakeholders, informants and the law enforcement agencies who worked with us to bring this issue under control.

Issued by Management of GCB