CBC

Automated services down at TD Canada Trust

Many people who bank with TD Canada Trust had trouble getting at their money Saturday because of a major computer malfunction.

The company says the problems started at about 11 a.m. eastern time.

Customers across the country found they couldn't use their bank cards at automatic teller machines and they couldn't make a transaction through EasyWeb online banking.

TD Canada Trust debit cards also failed to work.

People who found their local branch was open on a Saturday still had to contend with long lineups. Employees could process transactions on paper, but no tasks could be done electronically.

In a news release, spokesman Jeff Keay said technical crews are on the scene and are working to restore service.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), October 27, 2001

Answers

Toronto Star

Computer woes at TD Canada Trust snag bank clients Troubles not linked to sabotage, bank says From Canadian Press Some cash-strapped consumers looking to do a little shopping didn't have much luck at bank machines across the country on Saturday.

Things weren't much better with in-store debit purchasing, online or even telephone banking services for TD Canada Trust customers.

The bank suffered computer trouble in Toronto at around 11 a.m., paralysing the national network.

"Basically, it is a computer glitch," said media spokesman Jeff Keay.

Calling the problem a "significant disruption," he said technicians worked throughout the day to restore the service.

While customers were having trouble getting to their cash, there was no risk to bank holdings, Keay said.

"Our customer records and assets are secure."

Although bank branches were also affected by the service disruption, they remained open during regular hours, battling long customer line-ups.

Keay said people trying to get cash could ask store clerks for cash-back, charging the amount on the machine at the store checkout counter, and having the clerk take the cash from the till for them.

However, many stores will not offer cash-back to customers, and those debit services were also intermittently affected by the outage throughout the day.

While Keay would not disclose the nature of the problem, he said it was associated with computer memory and not related to sabotage.

"We didn't get hacked, or anything like that."TD customers also haven't been able to use other banks' automatic bank machines, the company said in a news release.

About 10 million of the bank's customers are affected.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), October 27, 2001.

Canoe

Bank cash system fixed

TD-Canada Trust says a hardware failure caused its Green Machines and banking services to be off line for nine hours on Saturday.

Thousands of shoppers found themselves unable to pay when they tried to use debit cards at checkouts.

Service returned to normal once a hardware component was replaced late Saturday night.

"It was an actual physical component which failed," said spokesperson Jeff Keay. It was in the database and memory and if you't rely on your database you can't do transactions."

The system also affected major retailers that use TD-Canada Trust for their debit services.

Some stores had customers sign forms allowing the retailer to debit accounts once the banking system was restored.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), October 29, 2001.