Lawmaker vents over BDO’s prolonged downtime, asks BSP to intervene

MANILA, Philippines — The chairperson of the House ways and means committee on Monday slammed BDO Unibank Inc. for its failure to restore its online services by the deadline it set.

BDO’s online banking services were still unresponsive by 5 p.m. after it vowed to be back by 7 a.m. “shakes confidence in the cyber infrastructure of the country's financial system,” said Rep. Joey Salceda (Albay, 2nd District).

BDO last week informed customers that it would hold a system maintenance for all its banking services from 11:30 p.m. August 18 to 7 a.m. August 19. 

The Philippines’ largest bank recovered its online banking services at least 13 hours later than scheduled or at 8 p.m., according to an advisory on its Facebook page.

Apologizing for the “disruption,” BDO explained that the prolonged system downtime was caused by a “vendor system issue” while it was upgrading its services. 

Salceda believes the hours-long downtime had caused “life-affecting consequences” for BDO’s customers, which number in the millions.

The lawmaker said those affected range “from families who cannot settle hospital bills by credit card, to ordinary citizens unable to pay bills due today.”

“I am also in receipt of complaints from Filipinos currently traveling, especially those traveling, that the failure of BDO’s online and mobile banking services to work has affected them significantly,” Salceda added.

The lawmaker also called on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to take action, describing the issue as a “red flag.”

“Will BDO make up for these consequences?” Salceda said.

“To the BSP: will BDO be held to account for this utter failure of service and commitment?” the lawmaker added.