Bereng Mpaki
THE managing director of the Lesotho Post Bank (LPB), Molefi Leqhaoe, has allayed fears that the bank’s system may have been compromised after some of its clients received transaction notifications when in fact they had not transacted.
Several clients reported to have received one-time passwords (OTPs), temporary password which are automatically generated to clients when performing electronic transactions such as withdrawing funds.
The bank circulated a notice on its electronic platforms on Friday after its clients reported the matter amid fears their funds may have been stolen.
“The Bank is aware that some customers have received OTPs as though they have made transfers,” the notice reads.
“Please note that our technical team is investigating the matter and you are also notified that your funds are not affected.”
Mr Leqhaoe told the Sunday Express that while their technical team was investigating the matter, they believed that the messages were caused by late delivery by mobile network operators for transactions that were made in the past.
“We believe those are just old messages that could not be immediately delivered to the clients when they were transacting due to technical challenges of their mobile network service providers,” Mr Leqhaoe said.
He said the messages had nothing to do with the hacking of their core banking system, which is he said is “highly secure.” The bank updated its core banking system in 2017.
“We have a very good and highly secure core banking system and this development has nothing to do with the security of our system. It is just a technical glitch from the network service providers.”
Mr Leqhaoe admitted however, that the manner in which the notice has been written was confusing and therefore could be interpreted in a way which may mislead some people.
“The notice we sent out today is a bit confusing and can be misleading if not correctly interpreted by some people. The important thing is that our suspicion is that those are old notifications our clients should have received when they were transacting in the past but they were unable to receive due to network service provider problems.”
Established by the government in 2004, LPB is the only commercial bank in the country which is wholly Basotho owned. It was founded to provide banking services to under-banked and unbanked Basotho in both rural and urban areas.
To date, LPB has rolled out 15 branches around the country. It has three branches in Maseru, Machache, Semonkong, Maputsoe, Hlotse, Pitseng, Mapholaneng, Mafeteng, Thaba Tseka, Katse, Quthing, Mount Moorosi and Qacha’s Nek.
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