Srinagar- The transactions and other procedures were hit across all branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank following a technical glitch leaving the customers in lurch for the third consecutive day.
On Monday, Kashmir Observer received dozens of calls from distressed customers complaining that they were unable to make payments or access their accounts because of the unprecedented outage.
“I was here [J&K branch] to withdraw the cash, but the employees informed me that the system is not working. I then tried to transfer an immediately required amount from my Mpay but that too wasn’t working.” said Muhammed Afzal Naqash, a customer.
Besides this, scores of customers were seen waiting at various J&K Bank branches since morning. Almost all the customers left the bank disappointed as they failed to make any transactions.
“While the bank is upgrading its platform to provide a better service to its customers, this is no way to handle customers during the hour of need. They can’t expect us to stay patient after putting us through a lot of troubles.” Nausheen Shah, another customer told Kashmir Observer.
Notably, since the start of the new calendar year, the prestigious J&K Bank, which kept banking alive in Kashmir during the turbulent times, and was trusted across the length and breadth of the valley, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. From a host of charges related to scams and irregularities in recruitment, J&K Bank has somehow damaged its customers’ trust in recent times.
However, talking to Kashmir Observer, an official from the J&K Bank who is looking after the software upgrade says that the bank is unable to understand why people are complaining.
“Mpay and ATM services were working fine. Only in-person transactions at the bank were down,” the official said. “The software was already upgraded yesterday. Today, the bank was facing problems in cheque clearing. Except that, everything was working fine.”
He further added, “Bank is currently working on outdated software. That’s why we’re shifting from that to Finacle 7, which after sometime will be updated to finacle 10, which is faster and has a unified view of all channels. Multiple channels like mobile banking, UPI, e-banking, nach and CTs are to be moved. It takes time and also the data fields in both databases are different. So there’s a chance of failure.”
The official also said that the current software upgrade is a must for every bank to go through and subsequently their services will also be disrupted during the upgrade. “So, J&K bank is no exception,” the official told Kashmir Observer.
Pertinently, the bank had sent a prior SMS to the general people in which it was conveyed that a major system upgrade scheduled this month may lead to temporary disruption of services.
“Due to a major system upgrade scheduled in this month there may be temporary disruption of services. We solicit your cooperation & request you to bear with us. JK BANK,” reads the SMS.
Notably, two days ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr last month, services of J&K including ATM and MPay services were down most of the time and customers were put to a lot of difficulties.
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