Bank customers report deposit deduction

Bank clarifies it has fixed technical glitch that credited accounts twice

KARACHI:

A private bank became the talk of the town after a number of its accountholders reported deductions from their deposits despite making no payments from their accounts and some of them feared that the bank was a target of cyberattack.

When approached, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) stated that nothing was wrong and no cyberattack took place, however, a technical glitch in software, being used by the bank, caused some erroneous transactions a few days ago, which sparked panic among the accountholders.

Due to malfunctioning of the software, the bank transferred amounts twice against actual payments to some of the accountholders a couple of weeks ago.

The bank has just corrected the technical glitch and fixed the transactions by deducting the undue amounts from the accounts “over the past couple of days”.

The accountholders, using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, reported a reduction in their deposits while the bank made such deductions without prior permission from them and without any justification.

“The issue stands resolved now,” HBL Head of Corporate Affairs Farhan Ahmed said while talking to The Express Tribune.

The accountholders, who had earlier ignored receiving twice the amount, became anxious about the reduction in their deposits.

The accountholders’ apprehension about the reduction in their bank balance was natural as the development took place a couple of weeks after the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) reported a cyberattack.

In this regard, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) urged banks to conduct information security audits.

Later, NBP reported that bank deposits and depositors’ data had remained safe in the cyberattack.

“It was not a cyberattack, but IBFT reversal … duplicate reversal,” the HBL official said.

He elaborated that the malfunctioning software at the bank’s end caused the transfer of amounts twice to some of the accountholders.

“For example, if we were liable to transfer Rs100 to an account, we ended up transferring Rs200.”

There was a 10 to 15-day gap between the double credit and the reversal of transaction.

Some of the accountholders had used the extra amount without noticing that they had received double credit.

“So, when we reversed the additional amount, they believed they were losing deposits.”

“No one has lost any money. Neither accountholders lost their deposits, nor did the bank,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2021.

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