NBP faces cyber-attack, no financial loss reported, says SBP

The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) reported a cyber-attack that is being investigated, confirmed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Saturday, adding that the situation is being monitored closely.

"NBP has reported a cyber security related incident which is being investigated," tweeted the SBP. "NBP has not observed any data breach or financial loss. No other bank has reported any such incidence. SBP is monitoring the situation closely to ensure safety and soundness of banking system."

Statement from NBP

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the bank also acknowledged that its servers were attacked.

"In the late hours of (October) 29 and early morning of October 30, a cyber-attack on the NBP's servers was detected which impacted some of its services," said the statement.

"Immediate steps were taken to isolate the affected systems. At this point, no customer or financial data has been compromised. Remediation efforts are underway using industry-leading subject matter experts including international resources where ever required."

The bank said that currently its services to customers are disrupted. "We are working to address the breach and confident that essential customer services will be restored by Monday morning."

The attack comes at a time when Pakistan is aggressively looking to adopt the digital mode of payments, with the regulators and authorities pushing for ways to increase documentation of the economy.

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The incident, however, is especially serious as NBP remains one of the largest banks in Pakistan with deposits amounting to Rs2.4 trillion, according to its 2020 report. At the time, total deposits of all scheduled banks amounted to Rs17.88 trillion, says SBP data.

Employees of government authorities, pensioners, and state-owned entities form a big part of its client-base.

The bank reported a consolidated profit of Rs24.64 billion in the nine-month period that ended September 2021, down from Rs26.18 billion in the same period of the previous year.