“Internal system error” hits BPI clients, bank promises to resolve it within the day .

June 7, 2017

  Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI)  reported “internal system error” nationwide which caused double debit or credit on some of their clients’ accounts on Wednesday. “We have identified an internal system error that caused some transactions occurring between April 27 and May 2 to be double-posted as of June 6” BPI said in its statement. BPI senior vice president Catherine Santamaria of Strategic Marketing and Decision Support said in a press conference only a “small portion” out of BPI’s total of over 8 million clients were affected by the system glitch. Santamaria denied hacking and scam as the root cause of the issue. “This is an internal issue. There is a lot of rumor about it being hacking or scam let me please emphasize it has nothing to do with that. We have BPI at the highest security standards and we believe that our clients, that we actually make sure that all the things that we have in terms of processing is actually of the highest level”, she said. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas deputy governor Nestor Espenilla, the incoming central bank governor, said in a text message to reporters : “It’s human error in BPI and not a hack. So it’s an isolated case  Priority now is for BPI to correct wrong postings.” “It should be finished today,” Espenilla added. Santamaria said not all BPI clients were affected by the glitch. “Only some, there were clients whose accounts were debited and we have clients who have double crediting", she said. Later, Santamaria, in a telephone interview with Daily Manila Shimbun, described those  affected by the glitch as “a set of clients”. She said this became a big issue through social media. Santamaria said BPI is addressing the situation. The bank assured the public the issue will be resolved within Wednesday. “One of the things that we are really looking at is to make sure that before the day ends all your balances are the same”, Santamaria said. All BPI accounts will be temporarily closed and will open upon solving the issue but over 800 BPI branches are open to service the people, Santamaria said. She said there is no need for the affected clients to report to BPI branches because their accounts will be fixed within the day. She said BPI Family Savings accounts, including foreign accounts, may be affected by the glitch. Santamaria responded to the possibility of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas investigating the glitch “You know every year they are there. So, they know how strict we are and therefore when we give the reassurance that we know the root cause the regulators are aware of our processes”, she said. Alanna Ambi/DMS