NEW DELHI/MANILA The whopping $81 million loss by Bangladesh's central bank in one of history's biggest cyber heists has left the Philippines -- where the money wound up -- scrambling to save face.
The Southeast Asian nation's biggest and first cross-border money laundering scandal left both financial regulators and legislators rattled, and the failure to stop launderers and tax evaders has become a major issue in the run-up to the Philippine elections in May. The incident has turned a spotlight on defects in the nation's banking and casino regulations, as well as the vulnerability of emerging-market institutions to online theft.
