Banco del Austro

Banco del Austro is a bank headquartered in Ecuador. It provides core banking services to individuals, businesses, and other clients. These services include deposit taking, lending, and payment processing. The bank participates in the global SWIFT network to facilitate international money transfers. Through SWIFT, it can send and receive cross‑border payments in multiple currencies. It operates within Ecuador's financial system.

In January 2015, Banco del Austro was the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack that compromised employee credentials. Attackers used the stolen credentials to issue fraudulent SWIFT transfer requests, moving approximately $12 million via Wells Fargo and $1.8 million through Citibank. Citibank reimbursed the full amount, while Wells Fargo returned only a portion, prompting Banco del Austro to sue the U.S. bank for inadequate transaction monitoring. The incident revealed weaknesses in relying solely on SWIFT’s authentication without additional verification controls. Neither bank initially reported the breach to SWIFT, underscoring a broader industry reluctance to disclose such attacks despite systemic risks to interbank trust. The case has since been cited in discussions about strengthening security protocols for international payment systems.