ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Finance and Revenue, Hammad Azhar Friday said that Bank of Islami's $06 million were stolen within 23 minutes on October 27, 2018 through international ATMs.

Responding to the question of Senator Mushtaq Ahmed in Senate, he said the amount was stolen from 6,000 accounts being maintained by Bank of Islami, he said adding however that the amount of account holders were absolutely safe and the monies withdrawn from customer accounts has been deposited in the respective accounts.

He said State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has made effective measures to further tighten cross border transactions.

He said SBP has developed a road map for added strength of the information security controls of Pakistan’s banking industry and instructed the banks to take necessary measures to identify /counter any cyber threat to their systems in coordination with all the relevant stakeholders including payment schemes, vendors etc.