BNK Banking Corporation has confirmed it has been trying to resolve a “technical error” affecting its core banking platform since February but says the problem is not related to a cyber-attack.
BNK, formerly known as Goldfields Money, last month failed to submit a monthly banking data report to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which prompted Banking Day to seek an explanation from the bank.
A spokesperson for the company attributed the reporting failure to an issue with its Temenos banking platform that is still not fixed.
“BNK became aware of this issue in February and informed the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority,” the spokesperson said.
“As a result of this technical issue, BNK is currently unable to generate the internal information needed for the APRA’s Monthly ADI Statistics.
“BNK has confirmed that the delay is the result of a technical error rather than a cyber-attack and is working with Temenos to resolve this issue as soon as possible.”
The bank did not respond to questions from Banking Day as to whether it had suffered an outflow of retail deposits in February.
The BNK spokesperson did not clarify whether the technical problems affecting the core platform were also impacting the provision of customer services.
The technology issues have emerged at a sensitive moment for the company after one of its largest shareholders, John Kolenda, last week offloaded most of his 12 per cent shareholding in the business.
Kolenda also announced his resignation as a member of the bank’s board.
Another director, Calvin Ng, was also selling shares last week.
Leading non-bank lender Firstmac acquired all of the shares offloaded by Kolenda and Ng for 70 cents each.
Firstmac now holds a 19.9 per cent interest in the bank.
The directors’ sales have upset price support for BNK scrip, with the share price now trading near a 3-year low.
The share price closed down 3.5 cents or 7.1 per cent to 45.5 cents on Monday.