Qatar National Bank says systems ‘secure’ after cyber attack

DOHA: Qatar National Bank said on Sunday that its systems were “fully secure” following a cyber attack which potentially exposed the names and passwords of tens of thousands of customers.

In a statement released on its website, QNB also said that the hack would have “no financial impact” on its customers but admitted for the first time that clients in Qatar had been targeted.

“QNB Group’s Risk Team monitored abnormal activity in our system environment, this was immediately communicated to relevant authorities,” read the statement.

“We also took immediate steps and our systems are fully secure and operational. The attack only targeted a portion of Qatar-based customers.”

The data leak, which was reported late last month, was said to include details such as mobile phone numbers, credit card numbers and international bank transactions.

Media reports claimed that a 1.4GB trove of documents was leaked online anonymously.

Among the information reportedly leaked were the bank details of several journalists working for satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which has its headquarters in Doha.

Another folder leaked apparently revealed details of the work of internal and overseas intelligence agencies and the country’s ruling family.

But many Qatar-based customers were left in the dark as in its only previous statement, QNB said it refused to comment on social media reports after reports of the hack circulated online.

The bank’s statement on Sunday said some of the information released online was culled from “non-QNB sources”.

“While some of the data recently released in the public domain may be accurate, much of it was constructed and contains a mixture of information from the attack as well as other non-QNB sources, such as personal data from social media channels,” it said.

“We believe the nature of this incident is fundamentally an attempted attack on QNB Group’s reputation and not specifically targeted at our customers,” it added, stressing all customers accounts were “secure”.

QNB is one of the largest banks in the Middle East, and last month reported a first quarter seven percent increase in profits to almost $800 million, despite the impact of low global oil prices.

Puerto Rico to default on $422 mn debt payment: governor

SAN JUAN: Puerto Rico’s financial crisis deepened Sunday as Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced the US commonwealth would default on $422 million in debt.

The governor said that San Juan can’t pay creditors when it needs to fund public sector salaries, health and education budgets, which, if neglected, could unleash a “humanitarian crisis.”

Puerto Rico has been locked in recession for a decade, and already defaulted on some debt payments at the beginning of the year.

Despite sweeping spending cuts and some policy reforms, it has not been able to stop the deterioration of its budget deficit.

Garcia Padilla says he does not want a bailout but simply legal ability to restructure existing debt.

But in order to do so, the US territory in the Caribbean needs the Congress in Washington to act, and it will not for partisan political reasons, the governor said.

“This was a painful decision. We would have preferred to have had a legal framework to restructure our debts in an orderly manner,” he said in a somber televised address.

“I have had to make a choice, and I made a choice,” he added.

“I have decided that your basic needs are more important than anything else,” he told the territory’s 3.5 million residents.

The $422 million in bond obligations is owed by the Government Development Bank (BGF).

Prior defaults by the island were smaller in nature; this one includes debt held by Wall Street bondholders and hedge funds.

With a debt of about $70 billion, the island is basically bankrupt; the BGF only has $562 million in assets.

“We have asked the US Congress time and time again to give us the tools to restructure our debts,” the governor said. “We do not want a bailout, nor has one been offered. We want a process to restructure, which won’t cost US taxpayers anything.”

Residents of this former Spanish colony won by the US in 1898 eventually were given a type of US local government with a legislature and governor.

Island natives have American citizenship but cannot vote in US presidential elections if they are Puerto Rico residents.

Puerto Rico’s relationship with the US federal government is largely handled by the US Interior Department.

Garcia Padilla stressed that he firmly opposed US federal control over locally earned tax dollars.“That would be reestablishing colonial rule over Puerto Rico, and would be reopening a Pandora’s box with extremely dangerous consequences,” he warned.

akistanis amongst top five expats remitting money

DUBAI: A United Arab Emirates based money exchange service provider has included Pakistanis in its list of top five expatriate nationalities in the Gulf remitting money by availing their services.

According to a foreign news agency, the money exchange provider company named Wall Street Exchange has stated that top five expatriate nationalities availing their services have been Indians, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans.

The company, with the help of its currency rates and customer facilities, reported a 10 percent growth in its business for 2015.

Wall Street Exchange’s Chief Marketing and Support Services Officer Sultan Al Mahmoud said, “We recorded a substantial 10 per cent growth in the total value of remittance in 2015 compared to 2014. ”

He went on to say that the expatriate also found it easy to avail their services such as credit card and utility bill payments while sending money to their countries.

Mahmoud said that the increase in number of expatriate sending money to their home countries is one of the reasons why the growth in remittance is taking place. He added, “The weakening of various currencies against the US dollar encouraged more expatriates to remit money”.

According to the World Bank Group’s Migration and Remittances Fact book 2016, India topped the Top 10 list of remittance receiving countries with an estimate of $72.2 billion followed by China with $63.90 billion. Phillipines was placed at third position with $29.7 billiion.

Pakistan was at eight place on the list with remittances recorded at $20.1 billion while Bangladesh was at 10th spot with $15.8 billion worth of remittances.

UAE was named in the list of top migrant countries by the World Bank with the likes of Saudi Arabia, United States of America, Canada, Russia, Australia and Spain.

Mahmoud expressed his optimism that the remittance business will grow in 2016. He referred to UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s statement which stated that 252,000 work permits were issued in the first two months of this year.