One of Australia's largest banks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), was the victim of a fraudulent scheme for money laundering, during which criminals supplemented accounts through the ATM-owned ATMs and then transferred funds to offshore accounts. Thus, criminals managed to transfer $ 55 million (AU $ 70 million), reports The Register.

The involvement of the bank in the fraudulent scheme became known after the Australian Information and Analytical Center for Financial Operations (AUSTRAC) reported the discovery of more than 53 thousand. Cases when the bank did not submit reports on transactions in excess of $ 10 thousand. In Australia, in the fight against the shadow economy, crime and the financing of terrorism, banks are required to report all transfers amounting to $ 10 thousand. and more.

In the course of the investigation, it turned out that the accounts in the CBA, used by the attackers, were drawn up for counterfeit driver's licenses. As representatives of the bank explained, these transactions went unnoticed due to an error in the software of ATMs, as a result of which the devices did not create reports on transfers worth $ 10 thousand. and higher. The error was contained in one of the software updates released in 2012, and was fixed only in September 2015.

The statement of the CBA does not indicate why the financial institution did not notice a decrease in the number of reports sent by ATMs.

Also, the bank's administration did not comment on the accusation of AUSTRAC in the absence of monitoring customer transactions even after the CBA had suspected that bank accounts were being used to legalize illegally obtained funds.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (the Commonwealth of Australia, CBA) is the largest Australian financial conglomerate operating in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Included in the "Big Four" of Australian banks, along with National Australia Bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Westpac. As of 2016 is the largest company on the Australian Securities Exchange.