The state-run Government Savings Bank (GSB) has shut down many of its ATMs after discovering they were infected with malware that caused a 12 million baht cash shortfall.
Announcing the move, the bank management said it should not cause customers any great inconvenience and their deposits were not affected.
It had arranged for its customers to use the ATMs of other commercial banks in the same area without having to pay intra-bank fees.
GSB president Chartchai Payuhanaveechai said in a press release it had detected that one of the three brands of ATM machines it had installed showed problems with missing money. The initial examination revealed that 960,000 baht had gone missing from five of the auomatic teller machines.
The bank decided to close down all the ATM machines supplied by this particular vendor for further investigation of the problem. It was discovered a total of 12.29 million baht cash was missing from 21 machines.
The malware attacks targeted stand-alone machines. The bank was working with the vendor to solve the problem.
The bank had since resumed service for 3,343 ATMs supplied by this vendor that are in safe locations after thoroughly checking those machines.
“The GSB wants to inform the public and customers about the reason behind the closing of some ATM machines and to prevent more damage to the bank. This theft is not related to customers’ accounts and money,” Mr Chartchai said.
All ATM machines in front of its branches were currently functioning to serve customers, who could also go directly into the bank to make their transactions, or use mobile or internet banking.