“Your account cannot be accessed, please try again later.” How many times have you read that message? Intermittent access to online services is a frequent issue. But it becomes more urgent and delicate when it comes to bank accounts.
Even more serious is the case that affected Banco Falabella in Chile, where users reported that “their accounts had disappeared.” Others have indicated that cannot carry out transactions while there are those who have not even been able to access the platforms with their passwords.
On their platforms, from the aforementioned bank they reported that “at this time we are intermittent on our digital channels. What does this mean?
Intermittence: an access problem
The first recommendation, to avoid later problems, is to always have a clear understanding of your banking products. In other words, despite having 24/7 digital access, it is healthy that you have your own file of monthly records where you have full knowledge of your movements (and especially how much money you have in your account).
The second. An “intermittent” problem refers to a data communication problem between the different systems that operate so that you can access your account. The bank’s internal system, servers that store information, security systems that interact with the above both to prevent access to your data, and so that you (with your password) can access them, etc.
There may be intermittency: when you try to withdraw money from a physical ATM, when you try to access the bank’s website, when you try to make a transfer, when you try to pay at a Redbank machine. In summary: each time different sources communicate to access information and/or a transaction materializes.
This should not happen: but it happens frequently
Clearly, in an interconnected world, it is necessary to have money in a bank, to be able to digitally access it and not have it under a mattress. But said act is also an act of trust. For the same, Chilean authorities had already referred to this in previous years: 2018.
That year the Bank of Chile suffered an attack in May. “It is of the essence of the stability of the financial system that people have access to their money all the time”, added Mario Farren, superintendent of banks, at the meeting of the Monetary Club of the Finis Terrae University.
The superintendent’s statements occurred after that year more than one bank presented intermittence in its online channels. Transactionality in Chilean banking, through channels other than physical channels, reaches levels that exceed 80%.