BPI correcting double posting of holiday transactions

The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) on Wednesday said some transactions of its clients during the New Year holidays were double posted, but the lender maintained “only some” were affected.

BPI said among the transactions posted twice were those made through automated teller machines (ATMs), cash accept machines (CAM) deposits, and point of sale and e-commerce debit transactions.

The transactions were made from December 30 to December 31, 2022, Rizal Day and New Year’s Eve respectively.

“We are already working to reverse the duplicate transactions. Rest assured that your account is safe and secure. Thank you,” BPI said in an advisory posted on its official Facebook account.

Sought for more comment, BPI chief customer and marketing officer Cathy Santamaria said, “[O]nly some clients affected.” No further details were immediately available.

“[P]lease be informed that we expect correction of the duplicate transactions within the day,” BPI said in a supplementary advisory.

“Given the high volume of inquiries on our online banking channels, you may experience intermittent access to our web and mobile app platforms,” it added.

For its part, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it is working with BPI, which it instructed to submit a timeline and updates on the reversal of the erroneous transactions.

“The Bank already identified the root cause of the operational error and committed to reverse the erroneous transactions and restore mobile and internet banking services the soonest possible (time),” it said.

BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier said the central bank will validate representations made by BPI, which explained the incidents as double debit transactions.

“After our investigation, we will determine appropriate action to take on BPI,” she said in a separate mobile message.

BPI ended the third quarter of 2022 with a P29.8-billion worth of revenues and P10.1 billion in net income. It was also the third-largest big bank in the Philippines as of September 2022, with total assets worth P2.519 trillion.

Its services include corporate banking, consumer banking, investment banking, asset management, corporate finance, securities distribution, and insurance services.

Its principal subsidiaries include BPI Family Savings Bank Inc., BPI Capital Corp., BPI Direct BanKo Inc., BPI International Finance Limited, BPI Remittance Centre Hong Kong Ltd., BPI (Europe) Plc., BPI/MS Insurance Corp., BPI Asset Management and Trust Corp., and BPI Investment Management Inc.—AOL, GMA Integrated News