ISLAMABAD: A private bank has confirmed that hundreds of its accounts were hacked through ATM cards.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials said they were waiting for more details before launching a probe connecting this with a recent fraudulent activity in which several foreigners had been arrested for allegedly stealing data from banks with skimming devices at ATM facilities.

The Habib Bank Limited (HBL) said that over Rs10 million (Dh1 is equal to Pak Rs28) had been stolen from 559 of its accounts.

Naveed Asghar, a corporate and marketing executive of the HBL, said there was no need to panic as the amount would be reimbursed to the affected clients.

The amount stolen through fraud was Rs10.2m while the number of accounts holders affected is 559, he said. “We have over 10 million customers which means that the size of the amount missing is not very significant for the HBL, while the number of customers affected is also low. It is a fraud and we must check it and find the culprits...it happens in all countries that use ATMs.”

He said that they were not aware of who the hackers were, but added that the transactions had been traced to Indonesia, China and other countries.

In June 2016, the FIA arrested and booked a Chinese national under the Electronic Transactions Ordinance and the Pakistan Penal Code for defrauding bank users. Then in March this year, the FIA’s cybercrime wing arrested two more Chinese nationals under the same charges.

The FIA suggested that the use of “obsolete technology” by banks for ATMs and decades-old security system at booths had made them an easy target for an “organised foreign group.”

The situation had prompted the FIA to approach the State Bank of Pakistan and ask banks to enhance security measures at the ATMs, and include the introduction of biometric features for the use of service.

The recent report by the HBL sent alarms bell ringing in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) where officials spent a busy day discussing the fraud and gathering details of the alleged crime to learn about “how the security was breached and how much risk this hacking involved.”

“We have been in contact with the HBL to learn the exact situation of the problem but are searching for details,” said Abid Qamar, SBP spokesperson.