BPI to clients: Don’t touch funds credited to account due to glitch

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has appealed to the public not to withdraw the additional funds credited to their account due to the recent glitch that affected its system.

"Please don't touch the money because we will automatically take it out. 'Wag niyo please galawin 'yung accounts. We are correcting the situation," BPI Senior Vice President Catherine P. Santamaria told reporters in a briefing in Makati City.

"It's not bonus money. No money physically went in or physically went out," she said.

This comes after an internal data processing error in the bank's system which caused debits and credits from April 27 to May 2 to be double-posted.

While deposits made during the said dates were doubled, withdrawals were likewise processed twice, causing some accounts to register negative balances.

Should clients withdraw funds that were wrongly credited to their account, Santamaria said the bank would be deducting the same amount from the account in the next deposit.

"If there are (account holders who withdrew additional funds) they will be very few," she said.

In the meantime, BPI said it has temporarily suspended all electronic services to ensure no questionable transactions are done while it is correcting the glitch.

"They just have to go to our branch and do the withdrawal (or deposit) over the counter," Santamaria said.

BPI earlier said it expects to correct the glitch and fix the balances of the affected clients within the day.

BPI, the third-biggest bank in terms of assets as of end-2016, currently has over 800 branches and over 4,000 automated teller machines (ATMs) nationwide. — MDM, GMA News