BPI says glitch caused debits in clients' accounts

The Bank of the Philippine Islands on Wednesday said it is experiencing an internal data processing error, which caused debits from its clients accounts.

"Due to an internal data processing error, some clients may have seen their accounts debited twice or credited twice for a past transaction," the BPI said in a statement posted on Facebook.

The bank said it is already correcting the mispostings.

"We apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused," it said.

Before the BPI issued the statement, some netizens sought help after experiencing problems in BPI ATM transactions.

"We are encountering problems regarding our BPI accounts. Most of us, nabawasan and nag-negative," said a netizen who sought help through GMA News YouScoop.

One netizen even feared that BPI's system had been hacked.

"Mukhang may glitch or na-hack ang system nila. Halos marami ang nabawasan ng 3K sa account ng customer nila," the netizen said.

In a separate text message, BPI Strategic Brand & Communications Management Head Tricia Quiambao denied that hacking caused the glitch.

"Not hacking," she said.

In another statement, BPI said it is suspending "access to electronic channels to speed up rectification."

It said transactions affected by the glitch were made between April 27 and May 2.

"Further to our announcement this morning, 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," the bank said.

It said it is expecting to fix the issue within the day. 

"We wish to reassure our clients that this matter will be resolved expediently, and that none of them will lose money from this incident," it said. —John Ted Cordero/ALG, GMA News