KUALA LUMPUR: The government including Bank Negara Malaysia must provide answers to CIMB Bank customers whose accounts have been suspended due to the financial institution's error.
Civil Disobedient Mindset Movement promoter from Agenda Reset Malaysia (ARM) Datuk Dr Mohd Ramalan Yunus said thousands of banking customers had their accounts frozen since Jan 24 due to a technical glitch.
He said affected customers were given the runaround and passed from one department to the other when they called to inquire about their frozen account details.
Speaking at a press conference with some of the victims at Villa Puteri Condominium here this evening, Ramalan said duplicate and redundant transactions should not take so long to rectify.
Ramalan said since the bank was governed by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and BNM by the Finance ministry and the ministry by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, he should intervene and resolve the issue.
Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) lead activist Datuk Nadzim Johan said so far they have received more than 3,300 complaints from the bank's customers and police reports have been attached to each complaint.
"Although PPIM received over 3,000 complaints on this matter, we believe there are at least another 11,000 whose bank accounts remain frozen, 11 days after the glitch," he said.
He said it has been 11 days since the glitch happened and they were still receiving complaints from account holders whose bank accounts were still frozen.
"How do you expect these persons to pay their bills and survive. How much longer should we wait, before the matter is rectified by the bank," he asked.
It was reported that CIMB on its Facebook page posted guidelines on protecting user accounts on Jan 24, following the glitch.
The bank urged customers to change their passwords periodically, safeguard personal information and check their transactions regularly so they do not fall victim to scams.
The bank had said the error led to an unspecified number of customers encountering duplicate transactions.
"We have noted a processing error which has led to a small number of customers receiving duplicate credits in their accounts.
"We are reaching out to these customers to ensure a fair and managed resolution," CIMB had said.
The bank said the processing error involved its "Money Send" service, which led to the duplication of fund transfers to their account.