Los Alamos bank suffers upgrade woes
Switch to new online system results in customer confusion
SANTA FE — Los Alamos National Bank’s switch to a new online banking system hasn’t come without headaches.
LANB president and CEO John Gulas said Friday that since the change-over that took place July 17, customers have had problems entering new passwords, and for about 400 people, ATM pins were dropped.
He said many customers were trying to use old passwords to access the new system, which has a more complex and secure pass-code setup. These customers were getting timed out after multiple access attempts, Gulas said, and then were given some wrong numbers that caused additional confusion.
“We had 2,000 calls the first day,” he said. When the Journal called the bank phone number Friday, the recorded message said the wait time was estimated at 28 minutes.
But Gulas also said many customers have had no problems. As of Friday, about 12,000 out of an expected total of 16,000 customers had successfully enrolled in the updated system, which offers customers “a lot more functionality,” he said.
“The employees at this bank will go out of their way to help customers,” said Gulas. He said wife had come in to help out.
“We had the old system for more than 20 years, and it had to be sunset,” said Gulas. “Unfortunately, when you want to change something like this, it can be very dramatic.” He said the new system will be updated on a regular basis.
In a statement to customers posted on the LANB website, Gulas said, “Our Internal Banking System is the heart of our service offerings. In order to move forward in a digital age, Los Alamos National Bank made the decision to migrate to a state-of-the art Internal Banking System that offers increased security and an enhanced digital banking experience.”
He said in the letter there had been more customer calls and longer wait times than expected. “I want to let you know that we have been monitoring the situation and understand your frustrations,” he wrote.
LANB has locations in Los Alamos, White Rock, Santa Fe and Albuquerque.