POP Bank outage leaves customers without services for five days

A significant number of POP Bank customers in Finland have been without essential banking services for five days, as the bank grapples with persistent login issues across its online and mobile platforms. The extended outage has affected approximately 250,000 customers, disrupting their ability to manage finances and access critical services.

The planned system upgrade, which was supposed to conclude on Monday, failed to restore full functionality. Customers reported a cascade of problems, including unpaid bills, inability to access services like Omakanta and healthcare portals that require bank identification, and even difficulties withdrawing cash from ATMs. The prolonged disruption has highlighted the critical reliance on digital banking in modern life.

POP Bank's communications manager, Maija Hyötyläinen, explained the outage stemmed from a system overhaul involving changes to the online banking connection and a mandatory re-download of the POP Mobile app. "We did a system update: our online banking connection has changed, and the POP Mobile app has had to be re-downloaded," Hyötyläinen stated. "Online banking is not updated this way very often, and it has meant that all online banking and mobile customers have had to re-download the services for use."

While the bank claims most issues are now resolved, some customers continue to experience difficulties, particularly with biometric authentication. The timing of the outage, coinciding with the end of the month when many bills are due, has exacerbated the situation. Hyötyläinen acknowledged the inconvenience, stating that compensation claims would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The bank also faced temporary issues with its customer service phone lines due to technical disruptions.

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We did a system update: our online banking connection has changed, and the POP Mobile app has had to be re-downloaded. Online banking is not updated this way very often, and it has meant that all online banking and mobile customers have had to re-download the services for use.