Consumerizim, a consumer advocacy blog, reports that the internet banking system of one of Zimbabwe’s largest and most successful financial institutions, CABS, is down for some customers. The issue has affected customers with a certain range of physical access One-Time Password Tokens issued when the the bank introduced the system in November 2013. It’s not clear exactly what percentage of customers are affected but considering notices needed sending, it must be significant.
A notice on the bank’s login page reads in part:
Some of our clients are failing to log onto Internet Banking. These are primarily users with tokens whose serial numbers begin with 0875… Our technicians are currently working on this issue and we expect a resolution soon. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
The tokens have expired and apparently the bank didn’t know this would happen so they were caught by surprise. “They didn’t know they had a two-year life, and they don’t know now whether they have to replace all the tokens (for which they will not have anywhere near enough) or whether there’s some way of renewing the expiry of the existing ones” says a comment on Consumerizim.
Another notification sent by the bank to customers via the Bambazonke mailing list reads:
Our core banking system is running, CABS is open for business and customers can access banking services through our banking halls, ATMs and Point of Sale devices. Customers are therefore able to get their money and conduct all their banking transactions.
We have however had problems with our Internet Banking system since last Friday. This is a result of some of the tokens that were issued to our Internet Banking users having expired at the end of October.
Our team is working with the vendor to resolve the issue. In the interim, customers can contact our call centre for assistance on 883825-60 if they need to use their internet banking urgently.
We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused to our customers.
Main picture credit: CABS
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