The major technical glitch hitting one of the Philippines’ major banks has continued for a second day, leaving thousands of customers in the country and abroad disappointed.
As of Thursday afternoon, customers of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) complained they are still unable to access their accounts online or over the counter.
The bank, which has a huge customer base abroad, particularly expatriates remitting their earnings on a regular basis, suspended electronic channels for a second day on Thursday after it failed to fix a systems glitch that has caused chaos and panic among customers who reported discrepancies in their account balances.
“BPI, any update? Our bills are piling up! Are you able to pay for our bills and late charges? [48 hours have passed and you still haven’t resolved the issue],” commented one customer, Fatima, who posted a comment on the bank’s Facebook page.
“It’s been two days, BPI,” said another customer. “We don’t have money anymore. How can we eat?”
"I still can't log in online. I hope they will fix it. At least some of the bills I need to pay are due next week yet," said one expatriate based in Dubai.
Customers have complained of losing a significant amount of money to unauthorised withdrawals, while others discovered staggering amounts deposited in their accounts. Some have said that their accounts were either debited or credited twice for a previous transaction.
One client had the biggest shock of her life after discovering that her savings had ballooned to more than 12.4 billion pesos (Dh919 million) overnight.
As of Thursday morning, the bank assured that it is “exerting all efforts” to correct the balances of accounts with mis-posted transactions.
“We have isolated the cause of our systems error. We expect complete restoration of services very soon, as we fully recognise your requirements ahead of the coming long weekend, including transactions via our electronic channels,” the bank said in its latest advisory.
“To allow us to do necessary adjustments, we will need to de-activate our electronic channels today.”
