Westpac appears to be having a major security issue with customers locked out of accounts and in some instance’s users of their online banking operation are being told to go to local branches to sign a written form.
On Monday existing customers were forced to re-establish their security credentials and when they did, they were locked out of accounts. Even users of their mobile banking app are being forced to re establish their credentials.
When ChannelNews attempted to get a response from Westpac a member of their media team responded by email claiming “Please note we don’t manage any marketing or advertising enquiries as our website says”.
In another incident a financial controller whose identity had already been established by Westpac and authenticated was told that their CEO had to go to a local branch to authorise a minor change so that they could access information on a credit card.
The business in question has no debt or borrowings with Westpac and has been a customer for more than 25 years.
What is not known is whether Westpac has had a major hack attack or that their databases have been compromised. Last week the bank was running a warning to clients to be aware of what appeared to be a major spam and malware alert.
This is the same bank that prior to the recent Royal Commission into banking were bullying both business and consumer customers to sell their properties if a loan payment was missed.
In one instance a customer had agreed to sell a house which at the time was valued by independent valuers at $7.3M. The customer also had another property valued at $2,1M.
The customer asked for an extension on a $2M loan the bank refused despite the property selling for $7.3M weeks later Today that property is valued at over $10M.
Westpac who is also driving customers to using online banking has eliminated branch contact points for their customers with existing customers forced to go online to get any form of borrowing.
