GMO Aozora Net Bank’s system issues

GMO Aozora Net Bank experienced delays in bulk transfers from around 11:30 a.m. on Monday, September 30, 2024, and in the attempt to fix the system bottleneck — contributed to by the large number of month-end transaction — 1,728 transfers were made in error around 4pm, mostly by sending the total amount of the bulk transfer to individual recipients (e.g., a total of JPY 1m destined to 10 recipients resulted in ten individual transfers of JPY 1m each).

While the bank attempted to cancel all erroneous transfers, there were various permutations of issues that resulted from the initial delay combined with the erroneous transfers:

• During the delay window, some bulk transfers have been initiated with other financial institutions to ensure funds arrived in time at the recipient
• Some of the reversals could not be completed due to insufficient funds in the receiving accounts, requiring manual intervention by the bank and/or its customers — GMO Aozora Net Bank is threatening legal action for those recipients of erroneous transfers that have not responded despite being contacted by the sender and/or the bank
• Also, some recipients had returned the funds already, resulting in duplicates on the reversal side
• As this was month-end, late fees might have been incurred by the recipients who were unable to submit their own transfers in time due to the delay
• Also, some might have borrowed extra funds and incurred interest charges to enable them to meet their obligations in time

As of Monday, October 7, 2024, these issues have not been completely resolved.

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