Argenta bank pays compensation for major tech failure

Belgian bank Argenta has begun paying customers compensation for a major IT failure, which made it impossible to make online transactions.

Online and app-based banking were inaccessible for most of last week after a planned system upgrade over the Easter weekend went wrong.

"Several customers have been in touch with an estimate of the financial loss they have suffered," said Argenta spokeswoman Christine Vermylen. "We have made the first compensation payouts. They are for small amounts."

The bank has updated the FAQ page of its website with details of how to claim. The technical problems were resolved last Friday afternoon.

"We saw a lot of online banking activity on Saturday," the spokeswoman added. "Most of our branches were also open on Saturday."

Argenta said a team of 120 IT experts had worked around the clock last week to fix the bug. The bank said in a statement: "We recognise that we have underestimated the impact and we therefore apologise to our customers."

Photo: Dirk Waem/Belga