India's City Union says hit by fraudulent remittances via SWIFT system

MUMBAI, Feb 17 (Reuters) - India's City Union Bank Ltd (CTBK.NS) on Saturday said it had suffered three "fraudulent remittances" of nearly $2 million that had been pushed through the SWIFT financial platform.

City Union said the transfers had been made through correspondent banks even though the Indian lender had not requested the transfers.

The Indian lender said it had been able to block a remittance of $500,000.

A second transfer of 300,000 euros ($372,150.00) was routed through a Standard Chartered Bank (STAN.L) account in Frankfurt to a Turkish account, while a third totalling $1 million was sent through a Bank of America (BAC.N) account in New York to a China-based bank.

SWIFT, whose messaging system is used to transfer trillions of dollars each day, could not immediately by reached for comment.

City Union said it was working with the Ministry of External Affairs and officials in Turkey and China to repatriate the funds.

The suspected fraudulent transactions comes after attackers stole $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank in 2016 in a cyber heist.

Separately, India's Punjab National Bank (PNBK.NS) said earlier this week it had been hit by a $1.77 billion fraud. ($1 = 0.8061 euros)