I&M Bank on Tuesday, May 9, reassured its customers of its dedicated service, despite reporting that it had lost $10.3 million (about Rwf10.3 billion) to fraudulent customer withdrawals in under three months.
In its annual report and audited financial statements for 2022, I&M Group disclosed an incident of fraud in the Rwanda unit, citing cases of fraudulent withdrawals through prepaid cards.
"Subsequent to year end, management of I&M Bank (Rwanda) PLC discovered incidents of fraudulent withdrawals through customer wallets amounting to $10.3 million during the period November 1, 2022 to 17 January 2023. As of the date of these financial statements, some recoveries have been made and investigations are still ongoing,” a statement by the Bank reads in part.
The fraudulent transactions, according to the financial institution, were done through the MasterCard Platinum Multicurrency Prepaid Card and investigations have been ongoing with the competent authorities in Rwanda.
"We wish to advise all our customers that the issue was isolated and contained. We would like to reassure our customers that the issue is not in any way related to any of our other funds transfer platforms and none of the Bank's systems have been hacked.”
Meanwhile, I&M also said that it is enhancing controls around the MasterCard Platinum Multicurrency Prepaid Card, and have also gone further to restrict some of the features.
"Our Platinum Multicurrency Cards can still be used for withdrawals and for purchases while wallet-to-wallet transfers and card-to-card transfers are unavailable.”
"Available currencies are limited to RWF, USD, GBP, and EUR for the time being. Additionally, we have been working with MasterCard, our solution providers for the Prepaid Card platform and Ernst & Young (EY) South Africa who are undertaking a detailed independent review of the fraud.”
Due to the ongoing investigations, the Bank said, it is currently not at liberty to provide further details.
"We reassure our customers of our continued dedicated service.”
The New Times understands that the primary investigation has seen some suspects taken into custody for further investigation.