In what was sure to have been a public relations nightmare for Canada’s largest bank, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) said in a statement on Sunday that as of Monday morning, “virtually” all of its clients’ accounts should reflect all transactions processed up to and including Friday, June 4. This statement came after the bank last week assured its clients that all problems would be resolved over the weekend.
“Our transaction processing is essentially up to date and we are finally back to a more normal schedule,” RBC said in its most recent statement.
The Toronto-based bank recognized, however, that the processing glitch it discovered last week during a routine programming update to one of its computer systems has not only hampered its own business, but has also affected the ability for other financial institutions to update their own client accounts.
“Now that those institutions have the information they need, they will be able to update their records according to their own processing schedules,” said Marty Lippert, vice-chairman and RBC’s chief information officer in a statement.
Although the bank has apologized for any inconvenience to its clients, it indicated that some RBC customers might continue to be without their money for a little while longer.
“While there may be some isolated instances where the effects of the disruption will impact clients over the next few days, I want to assure them that their money is safe and secure and that we will continue to do whatever we can to assist them,” said Gordon Nixon, RBC’s president and CEO in a statement.
One Mississauga, Ont. resident, who first heard about RBC’s processing problems on Friday, said that she wasn’t sure the glitch had affected her until she went to view her balance online and realized that her paycheque wasn’t there.
“I have friends that work for Royal Bank, I asked them if they could tell me what was going on but they didn’t have any answers,” said the RBC customer, who asked not to be named.
A loyal RBC customer for 10 years, the Mississauga client said that although this incident does “raise a red flag,” she wouldn’t consider switching financial institutions because of it.
“If it happened again, I may not be so loyal,” she added. “Hopefully we can trust that it won’t happen again.”
