The anxiety of thousands of taxpayers is the prime suspect in the phenomenon that brought down the mobile apps of several financial institutions for several hours. This belief is shared by several sources in the sector that Negosios contacted.
Thursday morning saw “unusual” peaks in mobile app hits from Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Novo Banco, Santander, Montepio and Banco CTT.
In some cases, more than five times the usual number of people wanting to access apps at the same time, Negosios knows. The concerted actions – but not intentional – of customers have caused several hours of unavailability of mobile phone applications and, to a lesser extent, some “homebanking” sites.
And why was there such a rapid increase in the number of applications? It’s impossible to know with 100% certainty – the reasons why they decide to open applications are known only to bank customers – but it’s hardly a coincidence that it happened on the same day that 500,000 taxpayers began to receive support in the amount of 125 euros from the state. face a general rise in prices.
“It was probably a worry to see if they had already received the transfer,” one of the sources says. “Of course it will be related to this fact,” notes another. “It shows what kind of country we have,” admits another, referring to the average salary of the population, which is lower than in other countries.
Banks contacted by Negosios during the day confirmed the difficulties he faced in the morning. However, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Novo Banco, Santander, Montepio and Banco CTT did not name the reasons for this phenomenon.
Among major banks, BKP and BPI did not feel the problem, and preferred not to comment.
There was no computer attack
The hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that all financial institutions have abandoned the hypothesis that this phenomenon was the result of a computer attack. Several sources in the market tell Negosios that it was a phenomenon of legitimate access to websites and “apps” – the problem was the number, not the nature or origin of the requests.
Returned to normal in the afternoon
After the problem was felt in the morning, by the afternoon it returned to normal. Officials at the main affected banks assured Negosios that normal operations had gradually been restored from lunchtime after morning peaks in volume.
