Stop payment requests from Bangladesh Bank were non-priority orders – RCBC

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) revealed the stop payment requests and freeze order sought by the Bangladesh Bank to halt the transactions involving $81 million of its funds were non-priority SWIFT messages.

"The requests from the Bank of Bangladesh were not priority," Maria Celia F. Estavillo, RCBC head of legal and regulatory affairs, told the Senate blue ribbon committee on Tuesday.

She claimed, however, that even after reading and receiving the stop payment and freeze requests, then Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito still pushed through with the transactions and expedited them.

Estavillo noted RCBC's Settlements Department received a total of 790 messages from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system on February 9.

Out of the messages, 111 were from the Bangladesh Bank and were authenticated free format messages of "normal priority."

The messages were "like a chat" where they were informed by the Bangladesh Bank that the transactions were "doubtful," Estavillo explained.

The messages were received by the RCBC system at 9:15 a.m. and were read at past 11:00 a.m., she said.

Since there were more than 700 messages and none of the messages from the Bangladesh Bank were of high priority, they were read on sequential order, Estavillo noted. – VDS, GMA News