Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) has publicly apologized to its 32.8 million retail customers for a seven-week service disruption caused by a switch to a new core banking system.
In a statement released Wednesday, the bank acknowledged the considerable frustration faced by customers during the transition. “Your patience and support during this recent transition to a new core banking system have been nothing short of extraordinary,” the statement read.
The disruption, which began in October, left many customers unable to access their funds, complete transactions, or receive accurate debit and credit alerts. “I could not access my funds for seven weeks. The banking app did not work at all and I had to use the web app which was inconvenient,” Oyegbile, a GTBank customer, told TechCabal.
GTBank has officially confirmed that they switched to a new banking system called Finacle, made by a company named Infosys. This is the first time they’ve publicly admitted there was a problem. Before this, GTBank’s top people and tech team went to India to talk directly with Infosys about using Finacle.
GTBank hoped that switching to Finacle would improve their services. However, the change caused a long period of downtime, which affected a huge amount of money – ₦7 trillion – held in customer accounts. This also made customers lose trust in the bank’s ability to keep their money accessible.
GTBank has yet to comment further on measures to address the disruptions or prevent future occurrences.
