Banks must head for help desk

I am sure everyone had a little giggle at the stores about the Commonwealth Bank’s IT problems yesterday. Images of punters lining up at the bank’s ATMs as they spewed out cash were always bound to cheer a public that believes the banks have it too good.

But as Council of Small Business of Australia chief Peter Strong says, this is no laughing matter.

The Commonwealth’s IT problems – which extended to some internet banking and EFTPOS services – come just a few months after NAB experienced crippling technology problems.

As a business that had to lend money to staff to help them out when our payroll couldn’t be processed, we can tell you just how disruptive these incidents can be.

Strong says the banks appear to be trying to operate on IT infrastructure dating from the 1980s.

“They wonder why their ATMs are giving out free money,” he said yesterday.

“Perhaps the ATMs have developed the human trait of guilt and are trying to make amends for the lack of judgement shown by numerous directors and CEOs of the four powerful financial dynasties.”

While the age and efficiency of every bank’s systems will be different (indeed, each bank runs multiple systems of multiple ages) the major problems at Commonwealth and NAB suggest substantial parts of infrastructure are creaking.

The problem is that these glitches spread throughout what is a highly interconnected banking system. When NAB’s system can’t process transactions, thousands of customers at other banks are caught in the crossfire.

Strong and COSBA believe that the banks should now receive a rating for their technology “so that the consumer can be aware of the capacity of their systems. Perhaps the new Chair of the ACCC, whoever that may be, can focus on ensuring competition between the banks and protection of the consumer by introducing this technology assessment system?”

That’s not a bad idea at all. If we see more of these glitches, Strong’s proposal could well get more momentum.

Meanwhile, the Government should speed up its investigations into bringing in account number portability for bank accounts. That way, customers who get fed up with technology problems could vote with their feet.