BPI urged to explain systems glitch to clients

To allay the fears of its clients, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) should come up with a report on the glitch of its system that led to discrepancies in bank account balances, Senator Grace Poe said on Wednesday.

“First of all, I trust the institution. I know that BPI has been there and has proven (its) track record. It’s good that (it) came up with this advisory immediately but we would like to know what caused this. Is it an internal IT problem or error? Or is it an attack?” Poe said at the regular Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum in Malate, Manila.

The senator though noted that the BPI had immediately ruled out hacking as it reported an “internal data processing error” that it is now trying to correct.

READ: BPI reports ‘internal data processing error’

“Let’s wait, let us not panic about this because that’s the worst…What I’m saying is they’re addressing the issue and I think that it’s good that they already came up with a statement and I think that they will fix it immediately,” Poe said.

“They should come out with a report on what caused this so that people will not be left in the dark and have unnecessary worries about their accounts. They should be able to uphold the trust given to the banking institutions,” the senator added.

In its advisory early Wednesday morning, the BPI said some clients might have seen their accounts debited twice or credited twice for a past transaction “due to an internal data processing error.”

“We are currently correcting the mispostings,” the bank said. IDL