First the glitch in the radar system of NAIA on January 1. Then prior to that clients of the oldest Bank of the Philippine Islands complained of “duplicate transactions” in the ATM, debit, POS and cash deposit machines. But BPI said it was not hacking or scam but “human error” during the batch processing.
Hundreds of clients of the oldest and erstwhile most-trusted Bank of the Philippine Islands could not hold their dismay at the “duplicate transactions” on December 30 and 31 and their continued inability to access the customer service to air their complaints and apprehension over their savings which might have been lost through such duplication.
On Wednesday, BPI vowed to resolve the duplicate transactions “within in the day” after clients posted in social media their dismay at BPI’s service in “0431 Debit Memo” and #Hoy BPI” which topped the Philippine trending list on social media platform Twitter.
In an advisory, BPI admitted that this affected some of its automated teller machines (ATM), cash accept machines (CAM) and point of sale (POS) transactions before New Year’s Eve.
The bank, however, assured its clients that their accounts “are safe and secure.”
“Some ATM, CAM deposits, POS and e-commerce debit transactions from Dec 30 to 31, 2022 were posted twice. We are already working to reverse the duplicate transactions,” it said.
A company spokesman has yet to reply to Inquirer’s queries on the cause of the glitch.
BPI’s mobile app remained inaccessible as of 10:40 a.m. on Wednesday.
“Given the high volume of inquiries on our online banking channels, you may experience intermittent access to our web and mobile app platforms,” BPI said.
The term 0431 Debit Memo is a general term for all debit transactions, whether for withdrawals, funds transfers and bills payments, the lender said in a previous explanation.
Twitter users posted their dismay with lines like: “0431 debit memo after the [airport] fiasco. From one glitch to another? Ang saya naman ng (what fun) 2023. Is this the retrograde at work?” one user wrote.
“Yung gusto mo lang sana magpahinga sa bahay buong araw pero parang mapapasugod ka sa bangko ng BPI para macheck balance mo dahil sa 0431 Debit Memo na ito!” (When you just want to rest at home the whole day but it looks like you will have to run to the bank to check your balance because of this 0431 Debit Memo!), another user lamented.
“Hoy BPI what kind of service is this? It is unthinkable that you have ‘trust funds’ stored in your system yet your system glitches. [B]anks should be secure and reliable all the time,” a user stated.
With Bank of the Philippine Islands’ electronic banking channels – including automated teller machines, mobile and web-based platforms deliberately placed on offline mode to address an “internal data error” on Wednesday, here are some key takeaways from a press chat with BPI senior vice president Cathy Santamaria on affected clients:
– For those clients whose accounts had been unduly debited, BPI will make sure the paper loss will be reversed and automatically be fixed.
– For those who have seen more money credited to their accounts than what’s due them, don’t touch the money because the excess will automatically be taken out or charged against these accounts.
– If you really don’t need your money, don’t panic. There’s no need to withdraw as the money is there. BPI assured no one will lose money from this activity.
– Don’t post any personal information or account information as the information may be used by unscrupulous parties who may take advantage of this incident to source sensitive information from BPI account holders.
– Be vigilant. BPI does not ask for any information online so don’t give any information online for your own personal safety.
– Check issuances will have to be processed one-on-one within the branch.
– For those who feel there’s something wrong with their account, all of BPI’s over 800 branches are open and anyone who needs to withdraw can go to the nearest branch. Make sure that as you transact, get only the money that’s yours.
Santamaria assured that the issue had now been “contained” and stressed that only a “small portion” of BPI’s client base had been affected. Clients who have had transactions in their BPI and BPI Family peso or foreign currency deposit account units (FCDU) between April 27 to May 2 were most likely the ones affected.
However, she said this issue may have been “blown out of proportion” in social media.
“We are also asking you to be patient. We will solve it within the day. There are some clients whose accounts have already been corrected. Some clients’ accounts are still being processed. At the end of the day, the balance will be the same,” she said.
Not hacking, no scam
“There’s a lot of rumor about it being a hacking or scam. Let me emphasize that it has nothing to do with that. We at BPI have the highest security standards and we make sure that all our processes are of the highest level.”
Asked what was behind the error if it’s not hacking, Santamaria hinted of some human error involved.
“Every day we actually do batch processing. Somewhere in that process – this morning or midnight – there was an error. Someone must have touched something. We’ve been in the business for over 166 years and we’re saying that because we have the highest standards, we have strict protocols. It was really an error,” Santamaria said.
This is not hacking because there was no external party involved, she said.
“When you say it’s a hack or a scam, you can trace that because we have high security standards, we can trace immediately. And as we speak, we know,” Santamaria said, adding there wasn’t any breach of security firewalls. “I can smile, tell you straight into your eyes, look straight into your eyes and say honestly, there’s none.”
What happened
What BPI advisory means: customers bank accounts might have additional credit (more money if deposits were made) or less credit (if withdrawals, outbound transfer or payments were made) than they should have because transactions were posted twice on Dec. 30-31.
If a client took out P1,000 from their account, BPI’s system erroneously deducted P2,000.
If a client deposited P1,000, BPI’s system erroneously added P2,000.
Affected transactions are those made through ATMs (automated teller machines), CAMs (cash accept machines, or the machine that accepts deposits), POS (point-of-sale) terminals — the gadgets at merchant counters where cashier staff swipe or tap credit/debit cards.
Purchases done through e-commerce — online/means — were also logged twice.
The bank said they are already working to reverse the duplicate transactions.
Tags: #BPI, #duplicatetransactions, #humanerror, #trendingonTwitter,#nothackingorscam