Some people with low balances were able to take out 1,000 euros in cash
An unexpected tech glitch at the Bank of Ireland led to several people rushing to the bank to withdraw large sums from ATMs even if they didn’t have sufficient funds in their accounts, BBC reported. Several pictures and videos surfaced on social media showing huge queues outside ATMs across the country on August 15.
While the Bank of Ireland claimed that it had a daily withdrawal limit of 500 Euros, some people said they were able to get to twice that amount. Some people with low balances were able to take out 1,000 euros in cash, as per The Telegraph.
Here are some videos:
Bank error in your favour. Collect thousands of dollars 😂😂😂
Scenes across Ireland tonight as a glitch at the ‘Bank of Ireland’ meant people were able to withdraw €1000s even if they have nothing in their account. Cops are now guarding machines. pic.twitter.com/mWv38AsVRU— The opinionated Black woman ~ Aunty (@Theblackfemini3) August 16, 2023
#BankOfIreland right now on O Connell Street, the world has gone mad 😂 pic.twitter.com/LOkT3LvGcy
— Denise Ross (@iDeniseRoss) August 15, 2023
To manage the situation, Ireland’s national police, the Garda, were deployed to various locations to prevent people from withdrawing money and to disperse the queues, the Irish Times reported.
Following a banking error today, Free State police have been deployed across the country to protect Bank of Ireland ATMs from ordinary citizens making withdrawals.
There is no better demonstration that the purpose of the police is to guard the interests of capital. pic.twitter.com/e8RoTTigCU
— Anti Imperialist Action Ireland (@AIAIreland) August 15, 2023
After the chaos, the bank said it had been experiencing technical faults, but on Wednesday morning it said the issues had been resolved. In a tweet, the bank said the app and 365 Online banking services were now working again.
Following the outage yesterday, the App and 3650nline are back working again. Overnight payments to accounts may appear throughout the day. We sincerely apologise for the disruption this outage caused – we know it fell far below the standards our customers expect from us.
— Bank of Ireland (@talktoBOI) August 16, 2023
The bank also cautioned customers that if they transferred or withdrew funds beyond their normal limits, the money would be debited from their accounts.
“We are aware that the technical issue meant some customers were able to withdraw or transfer funds above their normal limits. These transfers and withdrawals will be applied to customers’ accounts today. We urge any customer who may find themselves in financial difficulty due to overdrawing on their account to contact us,” it said in a statement.