VALLETTA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hackers transferred 13 million euros out of Bank of Valletta (BOV), Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Wednesday.
Addressing the parliament, Muscat said hackers from as yet unknown country had used false international transactions in attempt to steal the money from the bank.
The Maltese government is the largest shareholder in the bank.
The prime minister said the bank had realised it had been attacked while reconciling international transactions on Wednesday. He said the bank had shut down its operations within 30 minutes, after receiving confirmation of the attack from the Maltese security services.
The money, he said, had been transferred by means of the false transactions to bank accounts outside of the country, and BOV immediately informed its correspondent banks to block the transactions.
Muscat said he was making a statement to parliament to put people's minds at rest that their money was safe in the bank.
The prime minister said the bank would be initiating its systems once it was sure there was no danger of a second attack.
"It is no joke having a bank that controls half the economy shut down for a whole business day but at this stage caution trumped every other consideration," Muscat said.
The attack forced the bank to suspend all its operations, including branches, point of sales systems as well as the companies internal email system.
The bank said it was working closely with local and international police authorities to resolve the crisis.
