Two recent bank cash-advance card errors have rattled local banks who fear the incidents may scare away some card users.
Earlier this month, the automated-teller machines (ATMs) of First Commercial Bank (
"In line with a warning from the Ministry of Finance, we have temporarily suspended the issuance of new cash-advance cards until our self-designed ATM cash-advance programs are debugged," said a First Commercial bank official surnamed Hung yesterday.
She said that a review report will soon be issued to improve the bank's standards for remitting cash-advance payments in order to prevent such mistakes from occurring again.
The ministry has asked Asia Pacific to temporarily suspend its cash-advance services while urging cash-advance card issuers nationwide to review their cash-advance systems.
Both banks have filed lawsuits against the two cardholders who received the unexpected bonuses.
The incidents seemed to have scared away some card users.
"Some cardholders are a little hesitant about using the cards now after learning that programming mistakes may get them into legal trouble," said Lin Mei-lan (
But Lin said she has confidence in cash-advance card business and the bank hopes to recruit 330,000 more cardholders by year's end. She said the bank's cardholders borrowed a total of NT$5.5 billion in the past year.
Lin said that it was unlikely her bank's system would make a big mistake since it has a ceiling of NT$300,000 per cardholder.
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