Unauthorized transactions at CIMB reimbursed

CIMB Bank Philippines said on Sunday that all customers who complained about unauthorized transactions over the weekend have had their funds returned, adding that its system remains “secure and uncompromised.”

Customers of CIMB took to social media to report about unauthorized fund transfers amounting to P500,000 on the night of April 26.

The incident had prompted the digital-only commercial bank to shut down all its banking services to conduct a system check.

As of Sunday afternoon, CIMB said it had completed the reimbursements for all affected accounts.

But its advisory did not provide an explanation as to the cause of the unauthorized transactions that affected the savings of its depositors.

All of CIMB’s banking services had been restored as well, including access through partner apps such as GSave of mobile e-wallet GCash.

“We want to emphasize that our core banking system and customer data remain secure and uncompromised. Protecting your security continues to be our highest priority,” the bank said.

“We regret any inconvenience this incident may have caused and want you to know that we are taking all necessary steps to strengthen our systems further,” it added.

Robust growth

For its part, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it was “closely coordinating” with CIMB to resolve the issue.

“Based on a preliminary report, CIMB has started restoring customer balances,” the BSP said. “The BSP will continue to monitor the issue until fully resolved.”

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CIMB Bank Philippines is part of the CIMB Group, which is based in Malaysia.

The all-digital lender offers competitive interest rates to attract deposits, a major lifeline for banks.

Latest figures from the BSP showed total deposits held by CIMB amounted to P33.64 billion as of 2024, while its total loan portfolio reached P20.45 billion.

Last year, CIMB saw its profit before tax grow at an annualized rate of 45 percent, as transactions expanded by more than 30 percent to breach the P800-billion mark.

Last February, the bank said it crossed the nine million customer mark in just six years and the company is targeting to have over 10 million clients this year.