Dubai: Filipino expatriates in the UAE who opened bank accounts with the Dubai branch of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) are not affected by the system glitch back home, a senior official said.
The major Philippine bank was hit by a series of unauthorised transactions, including withdrawals and deposits on Wednesday that sparked fears that the bank’s system had been hacked.
In a statement, BPI said the problem was caused by an “internal data processing error” that had been identified. The bank stressed that it would resolve the issue within the day and that no one would lose money.
“Efforts to resolve our internal systems error related to transaction mis-postings continue to make progress. We wish to assure all clients that the integrity of their transactions and account balances will be maintained,” the bank said on its official Facebook page on Wednesday.
In the UAE, Jerry Felipe, managing director of BPI-Dubai, said accounts of BPI clients here were unaffected by the error.
“We would like to assure our clients in the UAE that they have nothing to worry about. The problem has been identified as a system error, a system glitch that affected April 27 to May 2 transactions only. BPI is fixing the system in the Philippines as we speak. No UAE clients have been affected,” Felipe told Gulf News. “While it is true that clients cannot access their online accounts as of now, we would like to clarify that this is because BPI’s system is currently down since it is being fixed at the moment. Once done, everything will go back to normal.”
Linda, a BPI account holder in Dubai, said she has not been able to access her account to know whether or not she was affected.
“I received an advice from BPI to refrain from accessing my online account for the meantime or from making any international transactions. I believe in BPI and I am sure they will be able to resolve the issue. They are very transparent to us and I appreciate that,” the Filipino secretary whose life savings are deposited in BPI told Gulf News.
Ingrid S., another BPI account holder, is not at ease, however.
“I am worried because BPI’s system is too old, which makes it vulnerable to hacking. I have friends in the Philippines who are affected; others can’t withdraw their money while there are those whose money appears to have vanished.”
