Zecharias Zelalem
Imagine you're at an ATM machine & learning that you could withdraw hundreds of thousands...beyond what your account balance lists. A dream!
Well, it was the reality for customers of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia a bit over a week ago. A "systems glitch" had people able to withdraw unlimited cash. Word got around the country fast, & CBE ATM machines at college campuses across Ethiopia had long lineups of students withdrawing huge sums of money!
Zecharias Zelalem
The latest in the fiasco that has the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia disseminating personal data of its customers...the bank has begun hanging up banners with photographs of people it accuses of failing to return money withdrawn during the "glitch" period, outside of its branches. These photos were taken outside branches in the capital Addis Ababa.
Meanwhile, the bank has been forced to apologize & remove images of a few individuals, falsely accused. The ethical failures continue to pile up.
Zecharias Zelalem
Meanwhile, members of the Oromia regional special police were seen taking to TikTok and bragging about the money they had withdrawn during the glitch period. No one will dare hold these guys accountable. Powerful armed officers will get away with it & have nothing to lose. Meanwhile, broke students will have zero job prospects, even if they do return the money with their names and faces plastered on the bank's online hall of shame.
Zecharias Zelalem
UPDATE: Days after carrying out a threat to publish the names of account holders who withdrew money that wasn't theirs because of a technical glitch, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia began publishing photographs and personal details of account holders who are yet to return money they withdrew.
I blurred this screenshot because it is getting a bit ridiculous. The bank claims that over 80% of the money has been returned. The punitive measures are extrajudicial & likely illegal.
Zecharias Zelalem
""We're stressed out" say students who withdrew the CBE's money; what did they spend it on?"
That's the title of the BBC Amharic's story after speaking to students on the list who bought all kinds of things, including cryptocurrency apparently. The photo though🙂
It's pretty worrying that campus students, the country's future, were the ones most implicated.
Messy situation.
Zecharias Zelalem
After the bank's Tuesday deadline expired, it went ahead and carried out its threat. The full names, bank info & branch (which will identify the city or district where most of them reside) of 565 people who went on a withdrawal frenzy, uploaded on PDFs to the bank's website (link).
Some say it's instant karma. Others say, it's punishing broke students who made costly errors & will be publicly shamed forever. And of course the police knocks on the door will follow.
https://combanketh.et/cbeapi/uploads/New_No_repayment_alphabet_e1dcbe678e.pdf
Zecharias Zelalem
But a number of people have told various local media that they are unable to repay the bank. Some paid off debts, others purchased items that can't be refunded.
The bank began warning people that it would publish a list of all the names of those who hadn't paid up, along with their bank account numbers on their official website.
This triggered discussion: it goes without saying that the people are in the wrong. But naming & shaming them for profitting off of the bank's own massive f**k up?
Zecharias Zelalem
According to the CBE, over 5,000 people made off with over a billion Ethiopian birr (around $20 million). After the warnings, the newly wealthy masses began returning their ill gotten gains. A little over half of the money had been returned by yesterday.
Zecharias Zelalem
Within 24 hours, the CBE patched up the glitch. By then, those who had made withdrawals, mostly university/college students, had spent money on expensive phones, laptops, jewelry or paid off debts. The CBE began freezing bank accounts and everyone who had naively made withdrawals received warnings that failure to return the money would lead to criminal charges.
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