For one week, Equity Bank ATM service was down, and so was their elaborate Agent service. This left their 8 million customers no option but to queue in their banking halls; the kind of queues that coil themselves over and over and over, before getting out of the door.
This surely left a lot of people frustrated, especially landlords who now had no option but wait… a word they don’t like. To make matters worse, the bank was not communicating, leaving many people to speculate.
The common agreement among nay sayers was that Equity Bank is collapsing. There were calls for people to withdraw all their money immediately Equity restored their network, as it was only a matter of time.
Another theory had it that Equity Bank had lend CBK Sh5 billion for 3 days, which assured them a 5% profit in the said duration. Apparently, Equity Bank executives would pocket Sh250 million in just 3 days. By lending out customer money, they had to shut down their services, before customers came withdrawing.
Another theory had it that 7 employees got fired from the Bank after a misunderstanding with James Mwangi. The said employees were however very knowledgeable in IT matters, and they brought the system down with them.
Below are a few comments from individuals, collected from Twitter and Facebook.
You realise how corrupt we are in the media when every worthy journalist is so quiet about the problems in #EquityBank – Robert Alai
Equitybank must be going down at the rate at which it rose,remember experts question that – Gilbert Korir
Ati Equity Bank has turned all bank accounts to fixed deposit accounts – @Olez
#UchokoziNi kuendea loan Equity ka umedunga t-sho ya Kcb.”
Equity bank atm trouble,am nt suprised,anatha day i withdrew a 1k fake note,fuck em – @Juliustifla
People making noise about #equitybank have little or knowledge in banking. With the current banking rules no bank can collapse that easy. – Jah siri msanii
Sema #EquityBank sema accounts za watu
kupoteza pesa.. sema pyramid
scheme …..sema queues ..Be warned!! A national disaster on the way. Alexty Waweru
Businesses now refusing to accept #EquityBank cheques. KIambu Road Veterinary Clinic has advised a client that they don’t accept them. – Robert Alai
#EQUITYBANK depositing but no withdrawing!..eish ukora nayo! – Lawrence Amba
After all the conspiracy theories, Equity system was restored, and the Bank issued a press statement. It turned out it was just a system maintenance gone wrong.
From the statement, ATMs have been enhanced to allow application of overdraft facilities. This is through the “acquisition and installation of the latest enterprise IBM DS8800 storage system to cater for increased storage and processing requirements.” … whatever that means.
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