Bank of Valletta has recovered €10 million of the €13 million stolen by hackers in February and it expects to recover most of the remainder, the bank's chairman has revealed.

Deo Scerri also told TVM that the bank was earlier this week informed by police abroad that they had established who had carried out the cyber attack.

Mr Scerri said the bank had appointed lawyers abroad to assist it in the recovery of the remaining funds. 

The source country of the perpetrators was not revealed. 

Read: How BOV hackers got away with €13 million

Contacted by Times of Malta, Mr Scerri said there were "high hopes" another €2 million will be recovered.

The chairman said it was thanks to prompt action that only €13m had been stolen, since far bigger amounts were normally stolen in such attacks.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said in a statement to parliament on February 13 that transactions from BOV had been traced in the UK, the US, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong and were "being reversed".

Fund transfers were blocked within 30 minutes and the banks alerted, the Prime Minister said.

Times of Malta later revealed that the hackers may have tried to keep a 'back door' open to regain access to the bank's system, but it was noticed and blocked.

Days after the February 13 breach, files were found hidden in the bank’s systems, possibly intended to allow the hackers to regain access at a later stage.

Sources said that one potential suspect was the international hacking organisation known as Cobalt Gang, which wreaked havoc on the international banking sector. It is believed to have stolen as much as €1 billion from banks in as many as 40 countries in recent years.