“Postbank must now solve this quickly,” said the head of the financial regulator Bafin.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The head of the German financial regulator Bafin, Mark Branson, is calling for the errors made by Postbank and its parent company Deutsche Bank in data migration to be quickly corrected. “Postbank now has to solve this quickly,” Branson told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, referring to the IT problems of many customers.
“I would even say it is a unique situation when we look at how many complaints there are about a single institute. So it’s no longer just an IT migration problem, but there are other profound disruptions in customer service.” Branson’s statements are unusually clear – the financial regulator does not normally comment on individual institutions.
Deutsche Bank had gradually taken over Postbank since 2009 and, in a final step, is now transferring Postbank customer data into Deutsche Bank’s systems.
However, there were significant problems with the project called “Unity”, meaning that customers were temporarily unable to access their accounts and, above all, customer service was difficult to reach. It’s not about the fact that online banking at Postbank doesn’t work for two hours, Branson told the newspaper.
“It’s about important services not being available, coupled with problems reaching customer service. For some customers this leads to extremely difficult situations.”
A good two weeks ago, Bafin responded to customer complaints with a public reprimand. Since the turn of the year 2022/2023, Bafin has observed “significant impairments in the processing of customer business at Postbank,” it said. They are checking “whether there are any supervisory deficiencies in the institution” and reserve the right to “initiate supervisory measures”.
When asked whether the bank would still face a “real penalty,” Branson replied: “It’s an interim situation. I don’t want to prejudge possible measures. If reported, they will come.” It would be possible, for example, for Bafin to order a special audit or appoint a special representative to monitor the progress at Postbank.
More: Deficits in Postbank’s customer business will last for months