News

Kenyan bank mum through prolonged ATM system crash

July 24, 2013

Kenya's Equity Bank took a drubbing via social networks last week when its ATM network went down for several days without an explanation from the bank as to the cause.

According to a report by All Africa, panicked customer filled banking halls when they were unable to access their accounts via ATM. The bank serves 8.4 million customers, or nearly one-third of all banked Kenyans.

The All Africa story said that only "after days of intense social media bashing" did the bank offer an apology and explanation for the ATM failure, which it said was the result of a data storage upgrade that took considerably longer than planned.

"We sincerely apologize to all our esteemed customers for inconveniences caused by this delay in our services recently. We assure you of and reiterate our commitment to continue serving you with dedication as we continue walking together in our financial services journey," said Equity CEO James Mwangi in a statement.

For the 30 percent of Kenya's banking public who patronize Equity Bank, though, the operative verb might not be "walking" so much as "stumbling."

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