'Too much traffic'

Intesa Sanpaolo: App problems 'all solved', pensions credited

For most of the day, the visibility of some operations was unavailable. The technical problem was reduced in the course of the afternoon: pensions and salaries never at risk

2 December 2024

Intesa Sanpaolo accelera sui pagamenti digitali

3' min read

Key points

Problem being resolved
Assoutenti calls for a round table
Consumerism, serious disservice from Intesa

3' min read

Intesa Sanpaolo "informs that all pensions have been credited to the bank's current accounts and accounted for as of today, 2 December". This was announced by the institute at the end of a complicated day for the institute's internet banking, which from the early morning registered widespread access problems for current account customers. Intesa "also confirms that no problems have emerged regarding the crediting of salaries". Finally, as regards the App, the bank has positively updated, shortly after 7 p.m., the information previously disseminated on access problems, confirming the return to full operativeness. An official cause for the inefficiency is still missing: the bank's technicians could indicate the reasons in the coming hours.

The Intesa Sanpaolo App, in particular, was 'down' for much of the day, and many customers also complained that their most recent transactions, including the crediting of salaries and pensions, were not displayed. Similar problems were also experienced by many customers who tried to access the Sanpaolo Group's Internet banking via their PCs.

Downdetector, the platform for information on the status of online services, collected more than 7,000 reports at its peak, which then settled down to between 1,500 and 2,000 over the course of the day, before collapsing to a few hundred. '

Problem being resolved

Intesa in the afternoon explained that it had 'identified the problem' from the beginning of the day and had 'immediately worked to resolve the blocking of the App, which was due to heavy traffic since the early hours of the morning'. "This is being resolved," the institution assured, but by mid-afternoon access was still impossible for customers of online services.

The technical problem was reduced as the bank worked to restore full functionality, allowing access and full operation on the accounts. Despite the efforts, for many customers who tried to open the App from their smartphone or operate on their current account via the bank's website, access was impossible. Intesa Sanpaolo Mobile and its App had over 12 million multichannel customers at the beginning of this year, with almost two billion logins per year.

Assoutenti calls for a round table

Assoutenti intervened on the black-out, asking the bank to take action to minimise inconvenience for its customers. "We have asked the bank's top management today to set up a round table with the consumer associations to analyse what happened on the technical problems front and to receive correct information on the computer tilt which, according to initial reports, is attributable both to the heavy traffic at the beginning of the month and to third parties managing the computer platform for bank movements. - explains president Gabriele Melluso - Beyond the responsibility for the incident, it is important at this stage to provide timely information to the account holders affected by the inefficiency, but above all to study together with the consumer associations the best measures to be implemented so that problems of this type are not repeated in the future.

Consumerism: serious disservice from Intesa

The inefficiency that is affecting Intesa Sanpaolo is serious and is causing huge inconvenience to a multitude of current account holders. This was stated by Consumerismo No Profit, which points out that the technical problems affecting credit institutions are increasing in our country. "Intesa Sanpaolo is turning from a leader in the banking sector to a record holder in terms of inefficiencies. - explains president Luigi Gabriele - In recent months, technical problems affecting the credit institution have multiplied, demonstrating that something seems not to be working properly in the management of IT services. More generally, episodes such as today's are worryingly on the increase in Italy and involve an ever-increasing number of citizens, as demonstrated by the Worldline case a few days ago, with digital payments blocked and damages of hundreds of millions of euro. Intesa Sanpaolo must now take action not only to restore all services to customers, but also to strengthen the security of its IT network and ensure that similar disruptions do not recur in the future," Gabriele concludes.