Bank of Ireland services return to normal after crashes

Customers’ cards and payments not hit by failure but online access was affected

Bank of Ireland’s latest systems crash came just a day after problems with its payments system prevented customers’ wages from arriving in their accounts. Photograph: Frantzesco Kangaris/Bloomberg
Bank of Ireland’s latest systems crash came just a day after problems with its payments system prevented customers’ wages from arriving in their accounts. Photograph: Frantzesco Kangaris/Bloomberg

Bank of Ireland has said all of its services are operating normally following two days of systems crashes left thousands of Bank of Ireland customers unable to use its ATMs or online services.

“All of our services are operating normally and customers can use the app and online banking, as well as our ATMs,” said the bank of Friday.

“If any customer has any questions or concerns please contact us for assistance. We would like to apologise once again for the disruption experienced yesterday.”

The bank said on Thursday that its ATMs and online access were not working, barring customers from drawing cash through Bank of Ireland machines or from using their accounts online.

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The failure came just one day after a software glitch on Wednesday delayed the payment of wages into customers’ Bank of Ireland accounts for several hours, leaving many of them nervous about their salary payments.

Wednesday’s crash hit ATMs and mobile and online applications, but did not prevent payments to and from customers’ accounts.

However, it left Bank of Ireland clients unable to draw cash from the company’s own ATMs or from carrying out any transactions online.

The bank stressed that customers could draw cash from competitors’ ATMs and use debit and credit cards for shopping.

Bank of Ireland’s latest IT problem emerged during the morning. At about 6.45pm on Thursday it confirmed that its ATMs and mobile and online applications were once again working.

Apologise

“We also extended the opening hours of some or our branches until 8pm this evening. We again apologise for the disruption this has caused our customers,” the bank said.

Bank of Ireland was unable to say what caused the problem. A spokesman said staff were continuing to investigate what happened.

While this week’s failures both hit Bank of Ireland’s IT systems, the company did not believe yesterday that they were connected.

The bank also said work to boost its online services did not cause either problem.

Barry O'Halloran

Barry O'Halloran

Barry O’Halloran covers energy, construction, insolvency, and gaming and betting, among other areas