The earlier trend of bank heists by bank employees in Bhutan was giving unauthorized loans or fattening up loans, but now there is a new shift in the trend with bank employees directly taking money from the accounts of clients or the banks own cash for the day.
The first case is in the Druk PNB, where an employee responsible to look after IT related works in ATM matters, withdrew Nu 2.305 million (mn) from the accounts of three clients between 2017 and 2022 when he worked in the Samtse and Phuentsholing branches.
He could achieve this by forgery and misuse of the user ID to carry out the withdrawals.
The people with the accounts were none the wiser, as he had disabled the mobile alert for the clients by changing their numbers in the system. The employee has been terminated.
The case is now with the Office of the Attorny General (OAG) which is reviewing the case and the applicable charges.
In the second case, a BDBL employee in the Phuentsholing branch was found to have taken Nu 150,000 from the account of a person.
The person found about this withdrawal and informed BDBL, which used its internal audit to do a review and also informed an investigative agency to look into it, and the investigation is ongoing.
In the third case a teller at the BNB Paro Branch had embezzled Nu 7.9 mn over a period of time from the daily cash handed over to her for transactions. It is alleged that she created some fake withdrawals to cover up for her withdrawals and she used the money in her business.
The BNB detected this matter in November 2023 and the employee was confronted about it. The bank recovered Nu 5.4 mn on the first day and then Nu 2.4 mn the next day from her. The employee was also terminated, and now an investigative agency is investigating her case.
A source said that people should be more aware about their bank accounts and transactions.
The source said the perpetrators tended to target accounts which were dormant over a long period of time or that do not monitor their transactions.
The reporter over several days attempted to contact the relevant RMA Department called the Department of Financial Regulation and Supervision that oversees such matters in banks, but there was no response.
Texts sent to the RMA media focal person also went unanswered.
BANK is fox guarding the chicken house. It has been observed that even when you are client to the institutions of bank , the employees treat you as a stranger customer. On the recent publication and reference of the bank robbers who are actually the employees of the bank, what are the modalities that you scrutinize the character of the employees. The institutions which stands as trustees breech their ethic and rob it’s own client. At times, you come across a situation, especially when you are in the state of availing the loan, we find ourselves as second class citizen asking a favour. To avail a service for your money, you will find yourselves, as if asking for favour. This type of employees mentality is creating a CAVEAT emptor to the Bhutanese financial economy.