BPI goes offline with ‘0431 Debit Memo’ glitch

THE Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) users filed online complaints to the bank after losing thousands of pesos due to unauthorized transactions in their account, Tuesday, January 4.

According to some Twitter posts, netizens shared screenshots of their transaction history, noting that there were unwarranted deductions from their savings account from a certain “0431 Debit Memo.”

Unauthorized deductions ranged from P 200 to P 60,000, as stated by Twitter netizens.

Meanwhile, others complained of being unable to open their online bank accounts as the BPI website and mobile applications had been inaccessible as of 8:27 a.m. of January 4.

In an online advisory, BPI assured its patrons that they are currently working to reverse the duplicate transactions as some ATM, CAM deposits, POS and e-commerce debit transactions from December 30 to 31 were posted twice.

This means all transactions, both withdrawals and deposits, had been duplicated for accounts who made transactions during the holiday.

According to BPI, users may expect the correction to reflect on their accounts within the day. The bank also assured their clients that their account is safe and secure.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is closely monitoring the BPI situation regarding the double debit transaction incident affecting BPI account holders.

“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,” the agency wrote.

BSP has also directed BPI to submit a timeline and updates on the turnaround of its erroneous transactions.