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Cape Town - Standard Bank [JSE:SBK] on Monday confirmed it was a victim of a sophisticated, coordinated fraud incident.
The bank said in a statement the incident involved the withdrawal of cash using a small number of fictitious cards at various ATMs in Japan. There has been no financial loss for customers, the bank said.
However, the loss to the bank is estimated at R300m. This is prior to any potential recoveries that may serve to reduce the loss, the bank said.
Standard Bank said the relevant authorities have been alerted.
"Investigations are at a sensitive stage and further information will be provided as appropriate."
Meanwhile, the Japan News reported on Monday that police in that country said a group of more than 100 people extracted ¥1.44bn (about R200m) from the ATMs in and around Tokyo over a period of "about 2 and a half hours on May 15".
The money was withdrawn with forged credit cards from 1 400 ATMs.
Japanese police believe that an international criminal organisation is behind the fraud, the website reported.
