Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance, Pearse Doherty TD, has called on the Central Bank to investigate the latest IT failure by Bank of Ireland.
The Bank of Ireland app was unavailable on Tuesday which led to customers withdrawing funds above what was in their accounts.
This prompted queues at ATMs around the country, with many people believing they were getting free cash.
Deputy Doherty said yesterday’s IT failure will cause lasting reputational damage to the bank and reveals a clear disregard for customer services as its profits soar.
“The Central Bank should investigate this latest failure without delay,” he said.
“Citizens and businesses are reliant on the proper functioning of technology systems to deliver financial services.”
He also called for a full investigation into what has taken place, and a wider review of the IT systems that the banking sector operates, and which communities and businesses rely on.
“Other questions need to be answered – including whether Bank of Ireland made contact with An Garda Síochána to deploy resources to local ATMs, and if there was any awareness at government level over these deployments,” Teachta Doherty said.
“This latest debacle, which will inflict lasting reputational damage on Bank of Ireland, raises serious questions over its investment in its own systems and customer service at a time when its profit margins have soared.”
Bank of Ireland issued a statement earlier today regarding the technical issue that read: “Yesterday a technical issue impacted a number of Bank of Ireland’s services.
“Our teams restored these services overnight and all services are available to customers this morning. Overnight payments to accounts may appear throughout the day.
“We are aware that the technical issue meant some customers were able to withdraw or transfer funds above their normal limits.
“These transfers and withdrawals will be applied to customers’ accounts today. We urge any customer who may find themselves in financial difficulty due to overdrawing on their account to contact us.
“We sincerely apologise for the disruption this outage caused – we know we fell far below the standards our customers expect from us.”
Tags: