Bank of Ireland announced on Wednesday morning that technical issues that permitted some customers to withdraw or transfer more money than was in their accounts had been resolved. Queues at ATMs were caused by social media posts about the error.
According to local media on Tuesday, among other problems, a bug in the bank’s web app had allowed customers with low balances or no money in their accounts to move up to 1,000 euros ($1,090) into an associated account with a digital banking app, such as Revolut, that could be withdrawn via an ATM. The Irish police said late on Tuesday that they were aware of unusually high activity levels at various ATMs around the nation. Following the malfunction became a trending topic on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, images shared on social media appeared to show lines at some ATMs. According to a statement from Ireland’s largest lender by assets, “Technical issues yesterday affected a number of Bank of Ireland services. Customers may access all services this morning after our experts restored these services overnight. “We are aware that certain clients were able to withdraw or transfer monies above their typical limits due to a technical issue. The consumers’ accounts will be updated with these transfers and withdrawals right away. Irish Finance Minister Michael McGrath requested that the central bank conduct a thorough investigation into what occurred and determine whether any additional measures are necessary to lower the danger of similar disruptions occurring in the future. The central bank stated that it was keeping an eye on the situation and communicating with the Bank of Ireland to make sure that any problems or errors found were fixed for clients. A bank representative declined to provide any information about the issue when questioned about it other than to say that it was a technical one. “We strongly advise any customer who thinks they might be in financial trouble as a result of overdrawing their account to get in touch with us. We truly regret the inconvenience this outage caused. Additionally, it warned that the bank’s web and mobile services would be sluggish on Wednesday while it catches up with payment processing. The representative stated that consumers will not be charged interest on any overdraft amounts and that the volume of transactions carried out on Tuesday night was not a sizable fraction of regular daily flows. The bank first acknowledged Tuesday at 14:50 GMT that users of its mobile app and online service were having issues. Customers had reported to the Bank of Ireland on social media that they couldn’t access their accounts online, that their bank cards couldn’t be used to make purchases, and that they couldn’t get money out of their accounts. At 11:15 GMT, shares of Bank of Ireland were unchanged. Revolut’s London-based spokesman was unable to comment at the time. The online banking system claimed earlier this year to have more than two million Irish customers.
