Papua New Guinea based BANK South Pacific Financial Group Limited (BSP) has advised customers who withdrew money wrongly put into their accounts during a system upgrade last weekend, to repay it to the bank.
It said in a statement posted on social media platforms: “All transactions conducted since last Thursday are being processed. Customers that have overdrawn their accounts will be required to pay back BSP.”
BSP advised yesterday that its mobile banking and internet service were still out. The technical glitch occurred while the bank was implementing a new electronic banking system, causing some of its services to go out.
“BSP has previously informed customers via (the) media that we are implementing a new banking system over the Easter weekend and that a technical issue arose,” the BSP statement added.
“Any new banking system implementation is a complex undertaking. Even with extensive planning, it is not uncommon for such projects to encounter technical issues during implementation.”
It also advised customers that due to the technical error, some of their account balances displayed “are currently incorrect”. “BSP did not deduct or deposit any additional funds to any accounts and it is currently addressing the technical issue.”
On what actions it would take to recover the “overdrawn” amounts, a spokesperson said it would “provide updates in due course via our social media pages and website”.
One customer yesterday told of how he came to know about the “glitch”.
“I was at home and neighbours with minimum balance were telling us of successful withdrawals they did.
“So I went out to the Boroko ATM, tried (to withdraw the extra cash) and was lucky.
“I got K200 out (when) my balance was only K28.10. My balance did not change before and after the withdrawal.
“I then went to the Gordon Commercial centre ATM and tried again. But this time, no luck.”
Another customer said: “On Friday, I heard rumours that BSP credited people’s accounts. I went to BSP ATM at Waigani to check my balance.
“I saw (an additional) K3,500 in my account. I hesitated to withdraw the money (because) I knew that it’s a BSP system upgrade error.
“Saturday, I checked my balance again and saw that the K3,500 was no longer there.”
Another customer said: “Around 11am today (yesterday), I went to Stop & Shop Badili to use the BSP ATM. I knew I had K50 remaining in my balance.
“So I made a withdrawal of K50, but the ATM disbursed an extra K100 note with a K50 note.
“The receipt shows K50 as the amount withdrawn. I’m not sure whether this error/fault will still be shown on my statement.”
The National/TechPacific
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