200,000 CBA customers 'hit by glitch'

AAP - As many as 200,000 Commonwealth Bank customers across Australia found themselves short of money on Tuesday after an on-line glitch mistakenly duplicated withdrawals from their accounts.

The bank said the problem occurred in processing overnight.
It had hoped to rectify it quickly but announced late on Tuesday that customers
would need to wait another day for their accounts to be settled.
CBA spokesman Steven Batten told AAP that money was taken out of some accounts
following bill payments and withdrawals over the weekend.
"Overnight, there were some transactions that have been duplicated as a result of a
processing problems," Mr Batten said.
"We're still trying to confirm the cause and we understand around 200,000 customers
have been impacted."
He said customers who had incurred fees because of the error would not be out of
pocket.
"If they have been charged any fees such as overdrawn fees they can contact us and
we will refund them," he said.
One man told Fairfax Radio that he pulled into a petrol station at 1am (AEDT) on
Tuesday and went to pay with his credit card but was told there was no money in his
account when there was supposed to be over $5,000.
NSW man Ben Nurmi told News Limited he had been left badly out of pocket by the bungle.
"I'm now overdrawn by around $150,000 and my mortgage is $180,000 - larger than it
should be thanks to this. I can't even get money out of an ATM to get lunch or put
fuel in my car," he said.
"I've been told due to the size of my account the earliest things will get resolved
will be Monday next week. How excellent."
Melbourne man Anthony Coralluzzo advocated a return to simpler times.
"I'm down 40 grand. We need to end the hegemony of bankers with their fractional
reserve 'chequebook money' fraud," he told News Limited.
"We need to go back to commodity standards, money that actually exists in physical
form and is not just a bunch of numbers on a computer that can be erased
'accidentally'."
Customer Jennifer Kernick said the glitch was all too familiar to her.
"The previous incident which affected my account was approximately three years ago
and it was such a hassle to get my account credited again (all debits were
duplicated) and it proved impossible to get reimbursement for the overdraft fee
charged due to CBA's error," she said.
"It was the only time my account had ever been in overdraft and I got charged for it!"
But the CBA has agreed to reverse any fees charged because of the error.
"The bank will ensure that no fees or interest is charged to its customers as a
result of this problem," the bank said in a statement.
"The bank is reversing the duplicated transactions from customer accounts which will
reinstate customer amounts to their correct position.
"This will be finalised overnight."