Several clients of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) urged authorities to sanction the commercial bank over the inconvenience caused by its days-long service disruption.
The Ayala-led bank said on Tuesday, June 16, that its mobile banking services had been “restored” after initially issuing an advisory on June 14 about their unavailability.
“We regret the disruption caused by unexpected network connectivity issues that affected our systems,” BPI said in an update posted on social media.
It also advised clients to expect “slower response times” than usual, citing anticipated “higher transaction volumes” on its mobile banking platform following the restoration.
“As access continues to normalize, you may experience slower response times due to higher transaction volumes. Our teams are actively monitoring and working to stabilize performance of the mobile app experience, which will allow us to progressively restore online banking services,” the bank said.
“We understand how important reliable access is, and are taking steps to strengthen our systems and processes. Thank you for your understanding and continued trust in BPI,” it added.
This was the fifth update issued by the bank since its June 14 advisory, which informed clients that its online banking services were unavailable, including access to the BPI app, the use of BPI online credentials on third-party apps, and the use of BPI debit and credit cards for e-commerce.
The downtime concerned clients, with some calling on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to take action following the inconvenience.
The BSP is the country’s central monetary authority that supervises banks and regulates finance companies.
“Too risky to say it as BPI ex-employee, but I think @BangkoSentral should penalize @TalktoBPI for the inconvenience. [Two] days straight? Nahhh,” an online user wrote, tagging the accounts of BSP and BPI on X (formerly Twitter). The post has garnered 1,700 likes.
“PH banks adhere to SLAs set by @BangkoSentral,” another X user, who identifies as a “tech solution architect,” wrote. SLA stands for Service Level Agreement in banking lingo.
It refers to an agreement or target that defines how quickly a bank’s process, team, or service should be completed.
“I am pretty sure this is already beyond the target time to resolve. I’m expecting BPI to pay penalties as set by BSP. [Two] days down already. Unacceptable!” the X user added.
“Follow The Trend Movement” or FTTM, a Pinoy pop culture-oriented page, also posted about the bank’s downtime.
“Kayanin mo, BPI,” it said in a Facebook post, which has earned 20,000 reactions and 2,700 shares.
Others also noted the downtime coinciding with payday on June 15, when employees were expected to receive their salaries.
“The worst time na mag-down ang banking apps is during payday. It should not happen when banks are required to observe the highest degree of diligence to avoid inconvenience to customers who rely on their services,” Nico Valderrama, who identifies as a lawyer and CPA or Certified Public Accountant, said.
“Two days (?) now with the app down, running straight into payday Monday. That’s a serious failure in deployment and basic service,” columnist Noemi Dado wrote.
“Advisories don’t cut it at this point, @TalktoBPI. After all the disruption this has caused, the missed deadlines and the funds left floating, customers are owed an inconvenience credit. #BPIDown,” she added.
BPI had assured payroll clients that the downtime did not affect the crediting of their net take-home pay.
“Payroll credits have been processed as scheduled. Clients should be able to access their accounts through ATMs, branches, or by using their debit cards for purchases,” it said on June 15.
BPI is the oldest bank in the Philippines and in the Southeast Asia region, with 173 years of continuous operations.
As of December 2024, its had 15.98 million customers.
