Colombia’s largest bank Bancolombia suffered embarrassing downtime yesterday morning when part of its online banking service was disrupted. The company quickly attempted to re-assure clients that there were no security concerns from a problem that, according to El Colombiano, was related to the domain renewal of Bancolombia.com.
“It is important to clarify that this situation does not correspond to a security breach in our virtual channels, and therefore, the organization guarantees that money and information of our customers have always been safe,” said the bank, according to Telemedellín.
The Medellín-based Bancolombia set up a workaround for customers to regain access in short order. But that didn’t stop the problem from being widely reported — and mocked — throughout social media.
Around 8:30 am, several users voiced their frustration with the disruption on Twitter. They offered up concerns about security, inquiries into how to access their account, confusion as to whether the page has changed its design, and jokes at the bank’s expense.
In this day and age, such a trivial issue affecting a major regional player in the financial services market is a big black eye for a bank’s brand. Bancolombia already struggles with reputation issues when it comes customer services and uptime reliability. Its domain blunder certainly won’t help change that perception.
