Citibank ATMs Crash September 4, 2001 11:10 pm EST

Workers Struggle To Restore System, Identify Cause

NEW YORK, SEPT. 4, 2001 (CBS News) - Citibank's nationwide system of 2,000 automated teller machines crashed on Tuesday.

The cause of the 5 p.m. outage remained under investigation while repair workers tried to restore power to the system late Tuesday, Citibank spokesman Mark Rodgers said.

About 2 million U.S. households hold consumer banking accounts at Citibank, he said.

"We are working very hard to fully identify the current problem with our systems and restore our systems as quickly as possible," he said. "We are also working to allow our customers to use other ATMs to get cash. Certainly we regret any inconvenience to our customers."

Citibank said it will waive any fees its customers incur because of the outage, including convenience fees charged by competing banks whose ATMs are used by Citibank customers.

Citibank, a unit of financial services giant Citigroup, is one of the largest consumer banks in the world.

http://news.iwon.com/home/news/news_article/0,11746,309639|national|09-04-2001::23:10|cbs,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 04, 2001

Answers

Shades of y2k, a year and a half late.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 05, 2001.

["Bank officials blamed an internal software problem triggered by high cash demands following the Labor Day weekend. Some internal bank systems also were affected..." Do you bank with these folks? Better check your bank statements carefully at the end of this month!]

Headline: Citibank ATM Problems Persist

Source: Associated Press, 5 September 2001; 11:15 AM

Via Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A45364-2001Sep5.html

NEW YORK –– Citibank's nationwide system of 2,000 automated teller machines continued to experience problems on Wednesday, forcing thousands of customers to use bank tellers or to get cash from other institutions' ATMs.

Citibank said it would refund any fees paid for alternative services.

The system initially crashed at about 5 p.m. Tuesday. Service was restored several hours later, but began faltering again Wednesday morning, according to Citibank spokesman Mark Rodgers.

"While our systems were restored by early Wednesday morning, we have continued to experience difficulties this morning," Rodgers said. "We are working hard to resolve the issues as quickly as possible."

Bank officials blamed an internal software problem triggered by high cash demands following the Labor Day weekend. Some internal bank systems also were affected, they said.

About 2 million U.S. households hold consumer banking accounts at Citibank, Rodgers said.

Rodgers said that most customers could conduct necessary transactions with tellers in Citibank branches or could get cash at the ATMs of other institutions.

"We will refund any charges, such as convenience fees, that they may incur as a result," he added.

Citibank, a unit of financial services giant Citigroup, is one of the largest consumer banks in the world.

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), September 05, 2001.