World Bank and International Monetary Fund experts will probe how Bangladesh's reserve was hacked by breaching the Federal Reserve Bank's strong fire-wall network, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB).

"These two global lenders are working with us to recover the stolen $100 million and reduce risks of further hacking," a senior official at BB's Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.

The official, however, is upbeat on recovering the full amount of money through government-to-government (G-to-G) negotiations. "Even we may get more than the amount stolen as penalty," he affirmed.

He said, "US Federal Reserve Bank receives our payment indent over SWIFT Code and in the hacking they received the codes in favor of Bangladesh but actually that were not from us."
He said BB's system is not responsible for this cyber arrack.

Another senior official in the central bank's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) said, "We have already identified the end level beneficiaries of the hacking and now it is G-to-G negotiations between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, China and Philippines."

BB suspects $100 million were stolen through a hack of its account with the United States Federal Reserve Bank.
"A partial amount, $20 million, has already been recovered through G-to-G negotiation," the official confirmed.

The banking sector believes Chinese were behind the hacking and they stole the money from Bangladesh's central bank's foreign exchange account in the New York branch of Federal Reserve Bank on February 5.

This Federal Reserve Bank branch holds accounts for over 250 foreign banks, governments and large financial institutions and it has strong firewall security arrangements.

The BB officials said that since their account was hacked and funds stolen, they've traced some of the money in the Philippines and were working with local authorities in an attempt to recover funds, which has so far been partially successful.
The BB FIU is in contact with the anti-money laundering authorities of the Philippines, Sri Lanka and China to track down and bring back rest of the money.
UNB adds: BB has formally informed Finance Ministry about the detail of the money, which was allegedly stolen from the account of Bangladesh Bank with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

"Bangladesh Bank officially informed the Finance Ministry through a letter on Monday", said AFM Asaduzzaman, BB's Assistant Spokesman and General Manager.