Irish bank Bank of Ireland apologized on Wednesday after fixing a technical problem that allowed customers to withdraw or transfer more money from their account than they had. The issue caused queues outside cash machines across the country on Tuesday and well into the night as rumors spread that these machines were allowing “free” money to be withdrawn, and police had to intervene.
Some articles in the Irish media report that customers with no funds in their accounts have been able to withdraw up to 1000 euros. Bank of Ireland warned users of distributors or financial applications, recalling that the funds would be debited. “We sincerely apologize for the disruption caused by this outage. (…) We know that we have failed in the level of service that our customers expect from us”, continued the monetary institution.
Brendan Burgess, founder of AskAboutMoney.com, told RTE television that the bank needs to improve its “clumsy” IT system. However, he felt that “if you know you have no money but you take 1000 euros from a bank account (…) it is fraud. And it’s not a problem that has to do with the Bank of Ireland’s systems. The Irish central bank has already fined Bank of Ireland for flaws in its IT systems, and said it is monitoring the implications of this incident.