Days before Eid, NBP online system suffers country-wide slowdown

Pensioners, govt employees and ordinary depositors queued up outside NBP branches across the country

KARACHI:

Customers of state-owned National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) had to wait for hours on Saturday for cash withdrawal because of a country-wide ‘slowdown’ in its system.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, a spokesperson for NBP said the bank’s internal IT system slowed down in the wake of massive payment transfers at the end of the fiscal year.

Pensioners, government employees and ordinary depositors queued up outside NBP branches across the country, as the bank struggled to provide them with cash on the second day of the fiscal year.

“The system is now 98% restored. All branches of NBP are still open (2pm). Although branches close at 12:30pm in Ramazan, our management has instructed them to stay open until each and every customer is facilitated,” he said.

He ruled out the possibility of another system-wide slowdown on Monday, saying the unusually high load at the end of the last fiscal year has already been handled adequately.

Commenting on the situation, the spokesman for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said NBP’s system breakdown took place as the year-end closing of the state-owned bank coincided with unusually high cash withdrawal requests in the wake of Eid holidays.

“We’ve received reports that the system is fully functional now,” he said, adding that a majority of ATMs are working despite heavy withdrawals.

Most bank branches are usually closed on Saturday, but the SBP had directed them to stay open on July 2 in view of upcoming Eid holidays. Banks will remain closed from July 5 to 8, which means people will have only Monday and Saturday in the next week to visit a bank branch.

A shortage of cash was expected in view of long Eid holidays. That was the reason the SBP had promised on July 1 that the general public would receive “hassle-free financial services” in the forthcoming extended holidays.

The SBP said it would inspect ATM sites of commercial banks during July 1 and July 10 to verify their operational status. In addition, the central bank had also advised commercial banks to intimate the SBP in advance about extra cash that they might need during Eid holidays. “Banks will also make certain that in addition to ATMs, continuous services are also available on Point of Sale (POS) and other Alternate Delivery Channels (ADC) Channels,” the SBP had assured the general public.