Database Error Sees ANZ Refund $45M
Database Error Sees ANZ Refund $45M
May 19, 2006: ANZ bank has been forced to refund $45 million to over 200,000 customers this week after a database error duplicated transactions made from its ATM, EFTPOS machines.
The error occurred between Friday and Monday last weekend, and caused the bank to inadvertently “double-dip” on all Mastercard transactions made through the bank’s ATM, EFTPOS, BPAY and internet banking services.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, ANZ spokesman Paul Edwards attributed the problem to human error. “I think what's happened is the tape containing all of these transactions was run twice. We are just trying to get the bottom of why that's happened but we suspect there's some sort of human error involved.”
ANZ says it became aware of the issue on Tuesday and has reversed all affected transactions, including any associated interest rates and charges.
The error only affected non-ANZ Mastercard holders as ANZ customer transactions are processed on a different database.
It is unclear how simply running a tape twice could cause such a problem, surely there would be processes in place to ensure a simple human error like this could not occur? IDM is awaiting further comment form ANZ.
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