Citibanamex, Banorte apparently under hacker attacks

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Mexico City — Citibanamex, the local unit of U.S.-based Citigroup, has admitted to a possible hack.

Meanwhile, Mexican bank Banorte said “some clients saw a delay in executing transactions” after an “incident” affecting its connection to the central bank’s payment system. Banorte is one of Mexico’s largest and oldest financial institutions, founded in 1899.

The parent of Banamex, the nation’s second-largest bank, said on Friday that some customers had experienced delays in interbank transfers. Symptoms afflicted local banks in April after a potential hack of the central bank.

“Today, 11 May 2018, certain delays have been generated in interbank payments sent or received by our clients,” is the English translation of the bank’s official statement.

“Citibanamex has not presented any problems in its payment systems. Our interconnection is operating normally,” it added, without giving further details.

A central bank spokeswoman said that she had no information to share on Citibanamex’s problems, and referred a reporter to the bank’s April 30 statement.

The bank had said its SPEI interbank transfer system “had never been at risk,” but that “problems were detected in three institutions that used an application, provided by an external provider, that allows some participants to connect to the SPEI.”

In January, hackers unsuccessfully attempted to rob the government-run export bank Bancomext, bank officials said.

The global SWIFT system, used to move trillions of dollars each day, has been attacked by bankers attempting to access bank records around the world, but the Brussels-based company has not disclosed the number of incidents.

Source: Nasdaq

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