(19 October 2012 – New Zealand) ANZ had to apologise after a major computer foul up in New Zealand caused thousands of bank transactions from May to repeat overnight on Thursday.Money previously debited from accounts was debited again, risking the tripping of overdraft limits.
ANZ is already under pressure as it defends its decision to kill off the National Bank brand.
ANZ spokesman Stefan Herrick, said a ‘payment processing glitch’ involving a file being duplicated, caused ‘a couple of thousand’ transactions from a date in May to occur again.
‘This meant some customers of other banks incorrectly received a debit or a credit to their account.
‘This was discovered quickly and we are reversing those transactions today.
‘We’d like to apologise for the error and inconvenience caused.’
Herrick would not address possible compensation but said if the transactions sparked fees by tripping overdraft limits, customers should contact their bank and ‘their bank will address any of those issues with us’.