Technical error affects 60,000 B of I accounts

The accounts of 60,000 Bank of Ireland customers have been thrown into chaos after a technical difficulty meant electronic payments made by customers on Tuesday were duplicated on Wednesday, while the payments made on Wednesday were not processed.

Bank of Ireland estimates that around 130,000 credit and debit payments were affected by the mix up, which occurred during a payment processing procedure at the bank on Wednesday evening.

People who were due to pay direct debits or standing orders, including monthly mortgage repayments and credit card bills, on Tuesday, March 29th, would have seen the same payment debited from their current account for the second time on Wednesday, March 30th, plunging some accounts into an overdraft position.

A small number of the bank's customers who were due to receive their salary by electronic transfer on Wednesday did not receive their pay.

Yesterday, the bank was in the process of correcting the errors by reversing the duplicate payments and ensuring that the payments that should have been processed on March 30th go ahead.

The bank said it hoped to have corrected all of the errors by this morning. Any electronic payments made by customers yesterday should be processed as normal.

Any customer whose account is still not in order today should contact either their branch or a special helpline on 1890 365 365, pressing option two.

The bank has apologised to all customers affected by the error and has promised that the mistake will not give rise to any fees or interest charges, such as late payment fees for missed payments or surcharge interest on unauthorised overdrafts.

A spokeswoman for the bank said correcting the payments was its first priority, but that a full internal investigation into what went wrong was taking place to prevent it from happening again.

The hiccup coincides with the enactment today of legislation that should give consumers stronger protection regarding financial services.

Consumers will be able to take complaints about financial institutions that have not been resolved to their satisfaction to a statutory financial services ombudsman, due to be appointed shortly.