Globe Telecom president and CEO Ernest Cu said on Monday that unauthorized transactions that affected some GCash wallet users in the Philippines over the weekend were the result of a glitch, and that no funds were lost.
Several GCash users complained on social media on Saturday that multiple unauthorised transfers of PHP2,000 (US$34) each had been made from their accounts. GCash issued a statement attributing the transfers to “errors in an ongoing system reconciliation process.”
During a press briefing on the Globe’s third-quarter results on Monday, Cu confirmed that the problem was due to a system reconciliation error, according to ABS-CSN News. Cu also said that affected users didn’t lose any money as a result of the glitch.
"No consumer lost any funds. The accounts were restored within 24 hours, and corrections were indeed made on process that will ensure that this doesn't happen again," Cu said.
According to a statement from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday, G-Xchange Inc (GXI) – which operates the GCash digital wallet – assured the central bank that “all accounts of GCash users remain secure and that they are now in the process of refunding the deductions.”
Globe, its fintech subsidiary Mynt (which runs the GCash business) and GXI have not disclosed how many users were affected. The statement from GCash on Saturday said the incident was “isolated to a few users”. GCash currently has around 94 million users.
According to the Philippine government’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), the Inter-Agency Response Center (IARC) hotline received 21 complaints related to unauthorized fund transfers as of Monday.
Meanwhile, BSP said it has instructed GXI to submit regular updates on its actions in resolving the problem. BSP will also launch its own investigation into the incident to identify possible vulnerabilities and review compliance with regulations and policies.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said it won’t be investigating the incident as it has no audit jurisdiction over private fintech firms like GCash, the ABS-CSN News report said.
Despite Globe’s assurance that the incident was a system glitch, the CICC said it is looking into the possibility that at least some of the unauthorised transactions may have been the work of cyber criminals.
In a statement on Monday, the CICC said it was looking into an Instagram post from actress Marietta "Pokwang" Subong, who claimed that PHP85,000 – the entire balance of her GCash account – was transferred to almost 30 unregistered mobile numbers.
CICC executive director Alexander Ramos said if the report is accurate, it sounds more like an organized breach rather than a system glitch.
Globe said in its Q3 2024 results that Mynt contributed a record PHP3.5 billion to the overall company for that period, representing a 14% contribution to Globe's pre-tax net income, compared to 6% a year ago.
