LAST UPDATE | 18 Aug 2023

BANK OF IRELAND’s chief executive Myles O’Grady has apologised for a glitch that led to customers not being able to use banking services during the week.

Calling it a “significant technology outage”, O’Grady said the bank’s reputation and trust with its customers and society had been damaged and they are “working to put things right”.

On Tuesday, queues formed at ATMs in various locations as some people posted on social media to say that they could top up other banking apps or withdraw cash in larger amounts than what they believed was in their Bank of Ireland account.

The bank quickly moved to remind customers that any amounts withdrawn would appear in their accounts, and has advised anyone who is now in financial distress or overdrawn to contact them for advice.

Images and videos of lengthy queues at ATMs in Ireland have made international news, and the outage has prompted the Central Bank of Ireland to establish “a full account” of what happened.

“This was a Bank of Ireland issue and our customers were impacted badly by this failure. We fell well below the standards our customers expect of us and I apologise sincerely for this,” he said in a statement,” O’Grady said. 

“On Tuesday, our mobile app and digital banking services were unavailable to customers. Our priority was that all customers continued to have access to cash and could transact on their cards to manage their daily needs, in cash, online or in a shop,” O’Grady added. 

“The challenge in doing this during an outage is that customers couldn’t check their balance and some may now find themselves overdrawn. I encourage any customers who were impacted by this week’s incident to contact us so that we can work together to find an appropriate solution.”

He said supports including a dedicated team to help people with the outage and interest-free temporary overdrafts had been put in place.

“We know we need to do better in future. We continue to invest in our technology to ensure customers have the very best banking services,” he said.

‘Too many such instances’ 

Speaking from Kent Station in Cork earlier, Minister for Finance Michael McGrath said  there is a need to establish a full account of the Bank of Ireland outage earlier this week because there have been “too many such instances in recent years”.

McGrath told reporters that it was “vital” that people have uninterrupted access to banking services.

McGrath said today that “in recent years, we have had a number of instances where systems errors or systems outages took place”.

“That’s why I’ve asked my own officials in the Department of Finance now to engage with the Central Bank, with the regulator, to gain an understanding of their assessments of the robustness of the systems being used by financial service providers, in particular those that are customer facing, to make sure that services can continue unhindered,” he said. 

“Because, when you have outages like this, it can cause problems: very significant disruption to people’s personal lives, to the conduct of business, and it can have an impact on our economy.” 

McGrath said he would be seeking to ensure we “understand fully” what happened and why it happened.

“Because I do think we have had too many such instances in recent years, and I want to be assured that the necessary investment is being put into systems where the public are interfacing with private companies, in terms of accessing their own money in particular.”

Speaking yesterday, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe, who is also president of the Eurogroup, said that he does not believe international damage has been done to Ireland’s economic reputation in the wake of the episode.

“What happened … is, of course, a really significant concern for Bank of Ireland, it has been recognised now by the Minister for Finance, but I don’t believe it is of the level that it is affecting the reputation and economic reputation of Ireland,” Donohoe said. 

“Customers being able to access their accounts, being able to make use of ATMs and Bank of Ireland apps are really, really important, not just for the functioning of businesses, and also to allow households to pay the bills, but also for the broader trust that we continue to have to rebuild in how customers see the banking system overall,” he said. 

“So, what has happened in recent days is extremely serious and is of concern.”

Includes reporting by Press Association