Shortly after 7 p.m. on January 12, 2015, a message from a secure computer terminal at Banco del Austro (BDA) in Ecuador instructed San Francisco-based Wells Fargo to transfer money to bank accounts in Hong Kong.
Wells Fargo complied. Over 10 days, Wells approved a total of at least 12 transfers of BDA funds requested over the secure SWIFT system.
The SWIFT network – which allows banks to process billions of dollars in transfers each day – is considered the backbone of international banking. In all, Wells Fargo transferred $12 million of BDA’s money to accounts across the globe.
