Postbank systems outage hits second month

Postbank’s Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and merchant services downtime has persisted for almost two months now prolonging customer frustrations.

The bank’s clients have since July not been able to swipe at Points of Sale (PoS) and withdraw cash from any ATM machine or agent.

Postbank first issued a statement on the glitch towards the end of July after weeks of continued systems outage stating that the problem was being resolved and that normal services would resume within a number of days.

The bank also said that services at Mashinani agents would continue, but they have since been affected as well.

“We are experiencing system challenges affecting ATM and merchant outlets. Services will resume soon. We apologize for any inconvenience causes,” read the notice to customers issued on July 25.

The bank’s customers are now left with the option of accessing cash by carrying out over-the-counter or mobile banking transactions.

The Business Daily’s efforts to get a comment from Postbank’s management regarding the glitch were unsuccessful. However, a customer care agent confirmed the prolonged downtime yesterday while stating that the bank was working towards resolving the systems failure.

The care agent could not, however, give a tentative date when the service would be back.

Among customers affected are elderly citizens under the government’s social welfare programme who receive their bimonthly stipend through Postbank.

The lender was selected alongside Equity Bank #ticker:EQTY, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) #ticker:KCB and Co-operative Bank #ticker:COOP to disburse funds to the elderly under the Inua Jamii programme.

The bank with about 102 branches spread across the country is also used by the government to disburse pensions to retired civil servants.

It was founded in 1910 and unlike all other banks in Kenya that are regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), it is governed by the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank Act.