Tech glitch triggers panic among BoB depositors

VADODARA: Panic gripped account holders of Bank of Baroda’s Old Padra Road branch when they received SMS informing them about money getting debited from their accounts.
The money was debited in the form of various bank charges due to a technical fault when the bank was upgrading its information technology system on Saturday midnight. Account holders heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday evening when they received SMS from the bank informing them about their lost money getting credited to their accounts.
The account holders thronged the branch on Old Padra Road in the morning to enquire about the lost money but since it was Sunday, the account holders could not get any details from the branch.As the crowd swelled, a team of cops from J P Road police station was deployed outside the branch to avoid any untoward incident. On receiving SMS, some account holders even made frantic calls to the central customer care centre of the bank to enquire about the deduction of money.
Rumours also started to spread among the account holders that the bank’s systems were hacked due to which the money was debited.
But, by 11.30am, senior bank officials visited the branch and told the account holders that the money from their account was deducted due to a technical error and assured them that they will get their money back within 24 hours.
Later, city mayor Bharat Dangar, who is also one of the directors of the bank, took to social media to inform the citizens that the system was not hacked and all accounts were safe.
“I called customer care at 6.30am to enquire about the deduction but they told me that the money was deducted as deposit transaction charge but it made no sense,” said Fiona Dias, an account holder with the branch residing in Tandalja. She again called the customer care after an hour when she was told that they were not sure what had happened. It was only when she called third time, the customer care executive said it was a technical fault and that the money will be credited back.
Later, the bank had started circulating SMS among the account holders to inform that due to system upgrade there might have been difficulties in banking transactions.
“There was a technical fault in our main server due to which the money had got deducted,” said branch manager R C Verma, adding that, “Not only our branch but other branches in the state had also been slightly affected but those in Chennai were badly affected.” The bank officials took details of around 80 account holders who had lost their money and assured them of crediting their money back within 24 hours.
A couple of account holders started getting their money back by 5pm. Rajnikant Bhide, an account holder residing on Old Padra Road, said, “The bank had deducted Rs55,313 from my account thrice last night but the entire amount was credited back and an SMS regarding it was also sent by the bank.” Bhide’s friend’s son Dr Dhaval Shah, who too had lost Rs1 lakh also received his money back.
Dias too said she received her money in the same sequence in which it was debited from her account.