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The legacy Irish bank took to X to let customers know that it is working on the unidentified issue and that physical cards continue to work normally at this time.
Bank of Ireland is facing an outage as some users of the bank’s online banking services and app say they are unable to access their account.
In a post on X today (4 April), the bank – one of Ireland’s largest – said that mobile banking is currently not available because of an undisclosed issue.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience to our customers. We are working on this as a priority,” the bank wrote.
The statement was released about an hour after Bank of Ireland customers took to social media to complain about the outage. According to Downdetector, a website that tracks which online services and apps are down, users first started reporting problems with the online and mobile banking service around 11.30am today.
At its peak, there were more than 650 people in Ireland who reported that Bank of Ireland services were down, according to the website. Apple and Meta services also faced an outage yesterday.
Our mobile banking is currently not available.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience to our customers. We are working on this as a priority.— Bank of Ireland (@talktoBOI) April 4, 2024
Responding to a user on X, the bank confirmed that both the web version and the app were down and that it was working to fix the issue. At the time of writing, I was able to access my account both on the web and through the app.
“Rest assured physical card transactions are not affected by this,” the bank said in another reply, adding that it cannot provide an estimate of when the issue will be fixed.
This is not the first time Bank of Ireland has faced IT woes. In August last year, customers of the bank were unable to access their online accounts or check their balances due to a glitch which led to some people withdrawing cash they didn’t have in their accounts.
Multiple reports confirmed at the time that people took to ATMs across the country to withdraw hundreds of euros in cash – even if they didn’t have the amount in their account.
“We would like to remind customers if transferring or withdrawing funds – including over normal limits – this money will be debited from their account,” the bank warned at the time. “We are conscious customers may not be able to check balances but should not withdraw or transfer if they are likely to become overdrawn.”
The legacy bank has been trying to update its technology and become more digital-friendly in recent years, coinciding with the rise in popularity of neobanks such as Revolut. A year ago, it announced 100 new flexible tech jobs to develop a range of digital products.
In February of this year, Bank of Ireland announced an investment of €50m to boost its customer fraud prevention and protection.
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