P46 M ‘mistakenly withdrawn’ during system glitch, BPI exec says

During a hearing of the House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries, BPI president and CEO Cezar Consing said most of those affected are the accounts of merchants and small businesses.

“The amount that was mistakenly withdrawn from BPI totaled PHP46 million … There were mispostings, and there was an amount, which in some cases, [were] withdrawn,” he added.

Consing, however, noted that majority of the mistaken withdrawals were already returned.

“We’ve talked to the merchants and we are adjusting the numbers one by one. Almost all of them have expressed willingness to settle,” he added.

Consing reiterated the system glitch was caused by human error and not due to hacking.

“BPI deeply regrets the inconvenience caused to the public, and ensured the [House] committee that they are doing everything to prevent the same incident from happening again,” he said.

Meanwhile, BPI executive vice president for retail banking Joseph Gotuaco said the average misposting for both credits and debits was PHP7,000.

“The highest amount that was debited was PHP1.6 million and the highest credit was around PHP2.5 million,” added Gotuaco.