News

Japanese bank shuts down ATM network

March 20, 2011

Mizuho Bank in Japan shut down its ATM network last weekend to fix computer problems.

The Tokyo-bank’s 5,622 ATMs and its online banking serviceswere knocked out Friday before briefly recovering. Bank officials, however, made a decision to shut down the system until Monday.

The problems have affected more than 1 million transactions worth nearly 700 million yen, according to the Associated Press. Mizuho officials said customers whose salary payments have been delayed by the outages can now visit one of its 440 branches and withdraw up to 100,000 yen.

The computer outages have hit as demand for cash increases, following the earthquake and tsunami, as well as ongoing fears surrounding the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.