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Across the counter: Rising technology failures worsen banks’ ATM transactions
By Tumininu Ojelabi Hassan The unending complaints of failed Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions is creating more austerity for bank customers and threatening CBN’s financial inclusion drive. Business Hallmark gathered that over 60% per cent of complaints lodged by banks’ customers are linked to failed transactions which take forever to resolve. In recent times, many bank customers have fallen victim of such incidents with some complaining that the amount was their last cash. As a result of the growing incidents, CBN created a unit where customers can channel such complaints to and assured resolution within 48 hours. Banks are also under severe sanctions for failure to comply with the stated regulations. However, in practice it is almost like a camel going through the eye of a needle. Investigation by our correspondent revealed that it takes longer time to resolve such failed transactions even after customers’ accounts had been debited. Bank Customers narrated their frustrating failed ATM transactions experiences with our correspondent who visited some commercial banks on CMD Road, Lagos on Thursday. At the First Bank, CMD Road branch, five of the seven ATMs in the bank were working while two were temporarily unable to dispense cash. A bank customer was seen arguing with a security officer after he tried to withdraw cash, unfortunately the machine was temporarily unable to dispense cash but his account was debited. This old man was lamenting over the debit on his account even when he couldn’t withdraw the money, which eventually led to an argument with the security officer who was trying to resolve the issue. Wasiu Tiamiyu, a bank customer, who had a similar issue three week ago, narrated how his account was debited despite his inability to withdraw. He didn’t get a reversal until after one week. “I usually come here (First bank) to withdraw because Wema bank is not on CMD road. The closest Wema bank branch to me is at Mile 12. Three weeks ago, I wanted to withdraw N10,000, the ATM was unable to dispense cash but my account was debited. “Afterwards, I called my bank to inform them of the debit on my account, the customer service representative, who responded to me told me to exercise patience for 24 hours, I was assured it would be resolved within 24 hours. “After 24 hours, I called to follow up as I had not gotten a reversal, I was told to wait for additional five working days because it was an inter-bank transaction and this was on a Friday. I waited for one week, which was the five working days, no reversal. The transaction was eventually reversed on the sixth working day, which was on a Monday. I couldn’t do what I needed the money for on that day. If an ATM is temporarily unable to dispense cash, there’s absolutely no reason to debit my account. Even when the account is debited due to technical issues, a reversal should be done immediately or within 24 hours,” he said. The situation at GTCO, CMD road was quite better. Three of the four ATMs in the branch were working, one machine was inoperative, another one was for cash deposits only, while the other two machines were working perfectly. Each customer spent less than five minutes at the ATM stand. Customers’ experience at Polaris bank, CMD road branch wasn’t a pleasant one. One of the three ATMs at the bank was inoperative, the other two were extremely slow, this delayed customers who wanted to withdraw, some entered into the banking hall for withdrawals while others, who were in a haste left. A female customer tried to withdraw but couldn’t after waiting for almost 10 minutes. While waiting, she asked the security officer why the ATM wasn’t responding. The security officer said the machine was acting up due to network issues. After several attempts, the disappointed customer, who obviously had no choice, walked into the banking hall to withdraw the cash she needed. Peter Adaghe, who narrated his experience while speaking with our correspondent said he attempted to withdraw N20,000 at the second ATM but the machine stopped responding. He waited for almost 10 minutes before we could get his ATM card. “I wanted to withdraw N20,000. After inputing the amount, the machine stopped responding for over five minutes. I called the security officer and he told me to press the cancel button. I pressed it twice, I waited for about three minutes before I got my ATM card back, at a point, I thought the machine had swallowed my ATM card,” he said. The situation at Access bank, CMD Road branch was impressive as the four ATMs at the branch were working perfectly and dispensing cash. Each customer spent less than three minutes at the ATM station. The customers of Zenith bank, CMD Road branch weren’t left out in the struggle to withdraw cash as only one of the four ATMs at the branch was dispensing cash, one machine was out of service which the other two were inoperative. According to a security officer who was assisting the customers at the ATM stand, the two machines with no cash were dispensing cash in the morning but customers had exhausted the cash in the two machines, only one machine was dispensing cash while the fourth one was currently out of service. An IT expert at a top commercial bank who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity blamed the rising volume of ATM failed transactions on technical issues, while adding that resolution of these failed transactions take longer due to the large number of complaints lodged daily. “The failed ATM transactions is due to technical issues, which we do not have absolute control over. It takes longer to resolve these issues because there are a lot of pending report relating to same claim so it’s based on first come, first served. Sometimes, when another bank is involved, the reconciliation takes longer. Also, another major issue is that the technical experts working are low compared to the large number of complaints we receive from customers daily,” he disclosed. In a chat with our correspondent, an employee of Access bank PLC, who pleaded for anonymity revealed that the rising level of failed ATM transactions was due to Intermediary issue and Network glitch. “When a bank customer has an issue while withdrawing from the ATM it’s because of network issue, while if the transaction is done using a POS machine, it’s an issue from the intermediary, which is Interswitch. When a customer wants to withdraw or transfer money, the money is debited from the customer’s account and credited into Interswitch’s account before it gets credited to the POS account. “So when there is an issue, we do reconciliation at the end of every day, after 24 hours if the bank detects the customer’s money in the intermediary’s account, then it will be reversed. Once the customer’s money isn’t detected in the intermediary’s account, the customer would have to lodge a complaint then investigation will commence to know if the transaction was successful at our end or the other end, which makes the resolution take longer time than expected,” she explained. According to the Phillips Consulting (PCL) 2023 banking channels survey, about 60 percent of respondents are unsatisfied with the challenges associated with ATM debit without cash dispensed and the corresponding transaction reversal waiting period. In most cases, the problem has always been a technical glitch in technology infrastructure along the value chain. While the reversal period efficiency has dramatically improved since the 24 and 48 hours CBN transaction reversal policy for ON-US and NOT-ON-US, respectively, customers’ experiences still vary across different banks. The report noted that the problem is a design choice rather than a technical challenge. It further urged CBN to adopt the service-before-pay model, which would foster the government’s financial inclusion drive and also create more opportunities in the financial sector. “Our customer-focused CBN can move the bar a notch higher from the current transaction reversal policy by adopting the Service-Before-Pay model, which would insulate the customers from the financial services practitioners’ internal and external bureaucracies and shortcomings. “A holistic and robust policy in this direction will open the industry to more innovative solutions that would create more opportunities and deepen the government’s financial inclusion drive,” the report suggested. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.
Publish Date : 2023-10-23 16:43:56
Image and News Source : hallmarknews
