Security Bank reports ‘delay’ in posting transactions

SECURITY BANK Corp. (Security Bank) reported a delay in posting banking transactions in its systems, but assured the incident has zero effect to the bank accounts of its clients.

In a statement, the listed lender said it is conducting system maintenance after the bank’s systems experienced a holdup in displaying banking transactions of its clients on Tuesday.

“Yesterday, we encountered a delay in posting banking transactions on our systems. We continue to perform system maintenance activities to address this and expect our systems to be fully updated by close of business today,” Security Bank said on Wednesday.

Despite the delay in posting banking transactions, the bank noted that its account holders were not prevented from accessing their cash.

“The delay in posting banking transactions does not and will not impact the financial integrity of our customers’ accounts. While some services were affected, the delay did not prevent our customers from accessing their funds,” the lender said.

“Security Bank wishes to apologize for the inconvenience this delay may have caused our valued customers.”

Banking hours were extended until 7:00 p.m. yesterday.

Security Bank’s advisory comes just six days after BDO Unibank, Inc. announced that some of its cardholders lost funds after reports of unauthorized transactions from their bank accounts last June 16.

Prior to this, Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands also reported of a system “glitch” last June 8, which forced the lender to deactivate all its online services for nearly two days.

Security Bank saw its bottom line decline to P2.8 billion in the first quarter from the P3 billion booked in the same period last year on the back of lower trading gains during the three-month period.

According to the bank’s quarterly report, its net trading and securities gains stood at P27.6 million in the three months ended March, dropping from the P93.549 million registered a year ago.

Meanwhile, its net interest income booked a double- digit growth of 27% during the period to P4.4 billion from the P3.5 billion recorded last year.

Its total loan portfolio in the first quarter likewise expanded 28% to P305 billion from the P239 billion logged in the same period in 2016. Broken down, its wholesale loans grew 26% while consumer loans climbed by 51% during the period.

Shares in Security Bank gained 40 centavos or 18% to close at P221 apiece on Wednesday.