Timbang, Rainne Vannex BSA-2A Module 11 Activity Sheet

“The BPI Alleged System Glitch in 2017”

The Bank of the Philippine Islands was the Philippines' third-largest bank. Since it is a
universal bank, and along with its branches and distributors, it provides a wide variety of financial
products and solutions to both retail and corporate clients, its success has become one of the most
sought after by consumers. Consumer banking and lending, asset management, payments,
insurance, stock trading and distribution, foreign exchange, leasing, and business and investment
banking are among the services it provides. Throughout its history, this bank has been recognized
as one of the country's leading financial service providers.
However, like any other company, the Bank of the Philippine Islands experienced one of
the most significant issues in its history, which was the alleged issue of a system glitch in most of
their branches last 7th of June, 2017. Many customers woke up in the said date that their accounts
online were unable to access and they saw unauthorized withdrawals and deposit in to their
respective bank accounts, some P46 million mistakenly withdrawn from bank accounts.
According to Inquirer.net, BPI President and Chief Executive Officer Cezar Consing
claimed that the conclusion of the bank's own investigation into the data glitch was merely a
"human error," dismissing fears that the bank's device has been hacked. The BPI President further
said that it was just an "internal data processing error" caused by the female specialist's mistake of
inserting April 27 to May 2 instead of May 26 to May 29 into the system. As a result, all
transactions between April 27 and May 2 were extracted, causing a lapse in the information
switching technology system, which controls transactions involving automated teller machines
(ATMs), point of sale, and cash acceptance. Additionally, because of the data processing error
happened inside the company, 1.5 million accounts out of 8 million bank clients have been
affected. Therefore, most of their clients vented their frustrations on their social media accounts,
saying that they were unable to pay for pressing needs.
Furthermore, in order for the affected customers be calmed, the bank rest assured that their
respective account balances would be corrected as early as possible. They also disclosed the fact
that there is no financial loss on the part of customer’s account despite the claim of many customer
that they saw some of their transactions in the past has been debited and credited twice. They also
said it in order to clarify that there is no large sum of money that has been lost in the bank.
After thirty-seven (37) hours of working to the error happened the account balances of the
affected customers and taking down all the electronic channels of the bank, they had successfully
corrected and brought back the balances to what it is before.
After this incident, the BPI assured that there will be more preventive measures that would
be used in order for this kind of problem avoid to exist again. Additionally, they were also working
with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for any remedial measures for this problem as well as raising
its standard in relation with the management operational risks in order to fortify banking systems.
Timbang, Rainne Vannex BSA-2A Module 11 Activity Sheet

REFERENCES:
https://www.bpiexpressonline.com/p/1/776/about-
bpi#:~:text=About%20BPI%20%7C%20BPI&text=Founded%20in%201851%2C%20Ba
nk%20of,both%20retail%20and%20corporate%20clients
https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/06/21/BPI-BDO-systems-glitch-senate-hearing.html
https://business.inquirer.net/231748/bpi-says-human-error-caused-banking-glitch
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/system-glitch-behind-mystery-transactions-
philippine-bank