# AIB to refund  70,000 ATM customers - €8m



## Brendan Burgess (16 May 2011)

*AIB today confirms that following a review of unsuccessful ATM cash withdrawals it is to refund €5.1m relating to 41,000 AIB customer transactions and €3.2m relating to 30,000 non AIB Bank customers. **These amounts include compensatory interest.

*​ *The refund relates to cases where a customer’s account was debited for an ATM cash withdrawal even though the customer did not take the cash which was dispensed by the ATM.

*​ *The problem arose as a result of the introduction of anti-fraud measures which prevented the automatic processing of refunds for these particular transactions. Process and procedure changes have now been put in place to prevent a reoccurrence.

*​ *AIB apologises for this error and is in the process of refunding all impacted cardholders. AIB is writing to AIB cardholders who have been impacted by this problem to inform them of the amount of their refund.

*​ *In relation to customers of other banks, these banks will arrange for the AIB refunds to be credited to their own customers’ accounts.

*​ *There is no need for customers to take any action.

*​ *AIB has set up a Customer Support Desk to deal with customer queries. It will operate from 8.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Friday and can be contacted on 0818 300 157.*​
*Annual volumes on the AIB ATM network*
Total AIB ATMs                                     783
Total ATM transactions for 2010              57m
Total value of withdrawals for 2010           €7.7bn


(Figures as at 31/12/2010)


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## Brendan Burgess (16 May 2011)

The problem arose because with the old system in place in all the banks, there was a way of defrauding the bank

The cusomer would withdraw €500 in cash , but take all of it except one note. 
That note would be sucked back in to the ATM and the computer would cancel the entire withdrawal. 
So the customer got €450 free of charge. 

They changed the system in 2003 so that the money was not automatically credited to the customer's account. She had to go back in and ask for it. They would check the figures and give it back very quickly.

The story about Bank of Ireland is here.


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## Sunny (16 May 2011)

The amounts are staggering though. Are people really that careless at ATM's?


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## JoeB (16 May 2011)

Not very intelligient of the banks to allow such a simple way of defrauding them. I hope their other computer software is written more competently.

A problem discovered in 2003 is only having a full solution put in place today?, in 2011? Do some of these refunds go back to 2004? or 2005?


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## Brendan Burgess (16 May 2011)

Sunny said:


> The amounts are staggering though. Are people really that careless at ATM's?



Hi Sunny

That was my initial reaction. The numbers are actually worse as the 7,000 doesn't include those that left their money in the machine and went back in the next day to ask for it back. Nor does it include the others where the next person in line noticed the money left behind and took it.  So it could be 21,000 transactions altogether. 

Last year there were around 21,000 incidents out of 57 ,000,000 transactions. So for every incident of carelessness, there were 3,000 properly executed transactions.


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## Romulan (16 May 2011)

Leaving aside the issue of how people never cease to amaze (and I still know people that never check their bank statements), what was the trigger for this announcement?

AIB has form as you might say and were quite happy to "keep" the money for an extended period.  So how was it "discovered" and why now?


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## Brendan Burgess (16 May 2011)

Apparently, they were not aware of the issue until the Bank of Ireland story broke,but I find that hard to believe.

Brendan


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## dam099 (19 May 2011)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Apparently, they were not aware of the issue until the Bank of Ireland story broke,but I find that hard to believe.
> 
> Brendan



It is hard to believe all right as surely the figures for the ATM's would have been out of balance every time this happened, someone had to be noting these to balance the books or else there are very serious problems with their record keeping.


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## poolfan (22 May 2011)

Very nice of AIB pity its taken them so long to figure out the problem


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## Bronte (23 May 2011)

And anyone who does get a refund ought to double check the figures and get the bank to confirm in writing how they made the calculations becasue no one should trust a bank to do this correctly.


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## overdraftman (23 May 2011)

They're on some run of this. When do we get to hear the new title for the merger between AIB and EBS. I hope they go for ABs.


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## porridge (23 May 2011)

Got a lovely surprise last Friday, €48 credited to my bank account. I had left €40 in am atm in 2005. I had written the money of at the time, as the ATM was in a very busy area, I presumed that someone passing by would have taken it. 

In a very odd way I'm kinda glad I left it there, as no doubt I would have spent it on something I didn't really need!


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