Over three million depositors and clients of Land Bank of the Philippines will be able to access their funds via automated teller machines and electronic banking facilities “by Sunday morning” after a computer system breakdown that began Thursday evening forced the state-owned firm to revert to manual transactions at its branches.
Long lines formed outside the branches of Landbank – the country’s fourth largest financial institution – after it announced that withdrawals would be processed over-the-counter even during the weekend.
One social media post on Saturday showed hundreds of people lined up in a long snaking queue outside Landbank’s Davao City branch on C.M. Recto Avenue – a scene that was repeated in many of the 153 offices that the bank kept open on Saturday to service withdrawals.
“Our ATM system has been down for 48 hours now and our branches had to service over-the-counter withdrawals by cardholders who are badly inconvenienced by very long queues,” Landbank president and CEO Alex Buenaventura said in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Saturday afternoon.
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“Our information technology group targets to have ATMs up by tomorrow, Sunday,” he added. “We will also have a skeletal force in our branches to assist in case there will still be problems.”
The government banking giant has 1,865 ATMs nationwide to service the payroll accounts payroll accounts of an estimated 1.5 million government workers and 1.8 million conditional cash transfer beneficiaries whose state subsidies are paid through Landbank ATM cards.
