Bank of the Philippine Islands shut down online access and its cash machines for a second day Thursday because of a glitch that drained some accounts but added money into others, creating at least one instant “billionaire.”
The country’s third biggest bank by assets and with eight million customers was forced to deactivate electronic transactions just hours after saying the problem had been fixed and online services restored.
“Please accept our deepest apologies as our electronic channels [ATMs, Express Online, and mobile app] remain deactivated as we aim to resolve the matter at the soonest time possible,” BPI said in an advisory to clients at 3 p.m.
“We assure you that the integrity of your accounts will be maintained. We thank you for your continued patience as we work to resolve this internal system issue satisfactorily,” it said.
The bank said in the process of rectifying balances of accounts with mis-posted transactions, it noted that certain accounts still reflected incorrect balances. “To allow us to do the necessary adjustments, we will need to deactivate our electronic channels,” BPI said in a statement.
It said clients continued to be serviced by branches, which opened until 7:30 p.m.
BPI senior vice president Catherine Santamaria earlier said the incident was not caused by hacking, assuring its bank clients that it was an “internal issue.”
Incoming Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., who will succeed outgoing Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. on July 3, told reporters Wednesday evening that the regulator would conduct an immediate investigation of the incident after the bank was through in its internal probe.
“I had to borrow from a friend just to eat,” university student John Daniel Villanueva, 21, told AFP after heading to cash machine Thursday morning and finding it offline.
“It’s really a hassle. I don’t have any cash and I need to pay some bills.”
Bank customers were shocked Wednesday morning to find unauthorized withdrawals and deposits from their accounts, triggering fears the bank had been hacked and social media erupting with complaints against the 166-year-old lender.
There has been global concern about hacking following the world’s biggest ransomware attack last month that struck hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.
BPI blamed an “internal data processing error” for the glitch that led to unauthorized credits and debits on customers’ accounts, without explaining the nature of the problem or how it occurred.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said it accepted BPI’s explanation that no hacking was involved but would still carry out its own investigation.
As BPI scrambled to fix the error Wednesday, it closed its ATMs and suspended online transactions.
The bank early Thursday said it had fixed the problem and that access to all its electronic channels had been restored, only to deactivate it again as complaints about wrong balances continued to pour in.
“In the process of rectifying balances of accounts with mis-posted transactions, we have noted that certain accounts still reflect incorrect balances,” the bank said.
While many clients reported money missing from their accounts, one customer was reported to have become an instant peso billionaire.
A depositor was reportedly surprised to find her account surge to more than P12.4 billion ($250.08 million) overnight but she and her husband merely laughed off their newfound “fortune”.
Customers continued to vent their emotions online, with BPI’s latest statement eliciting more than 3,000 comments on Facebook by mid-afternoon Thursday.
“We demand a compensation for this BPI…. this is really hassle and very inconvenient for us,” wrote customer Danica Roldan Beltran. With Julito G. Rada