Thousands of Christmas shoppers were unable to withdraw large amounts of cash from their Bank of Ireland accounts yesterday following a major computer systems crash.
For several hours yesterday and for much of Thursday, customers experienced problems accessing their accounts using ATM and Laser cards and undertaking certain in-branch transactions.
Many customers were unable to withdraw more than €200 from ATM machines because Bank of Ireland's system was unable to obtain information on customer accounts.
Others could not perform certain in-branch banking transactions where it was necessary to get information on their own or someone else's account.
Bank of Ireland said last night the problem had been resolved, and account-holders should not experience any further problems withdrawing cash.
A computer glitch at the bank's mainframe system caused the crash, said a bank spokesman, who declined to give further information about the reason for the breakdown.
"The vast majority of customers didn't notice anything," he said. "We've probably had a million transactions since 4 p.m. on Thursday, and only a small percentage were affected."
The crash, combined with the heavy volume of transactions in the Christmas rush, caused long queues at many branches and cash machines throughout the Republic.
One customer who spoke to The Irish Times yesterday said she had experienced major problems trying to confirm that money she had lodged in a friend's account had actually got there.
She said queues in the branch in O'Connell Street in Dublin were extremely long.
Bank of Ireland has taken out advertisements in the press to apologise and has denied that the crash was caused by hackers.
