Chase Bank Online Glitch Caused Double Transactions

Chase Bank ATMs in New York, on March 25, 2021. Mark Lennihan/AP Photo

JP Morgan Chase bank’s online-banking system was malfunctioning Friday, creating double transactions, fees, and payments in customers’ accounts. The glitch was fixed later that day.

Numerous Chase customers had posted on social media that their rent or bill payments were taken out of their accounts twice and reported hold times with customer service approaching more than an hour. The New York-based bank is one of the country’s largest financial institutions with millions of online customers.

Transactions over Zelle, the bank’s own peer-to-peer payment service, were also impacted.

Chase said late Friday that the bank had “resolved the underlying issue” and was in the process of issuing refunds or reversing transactions for customers.

Online banking services, while usually reliable, sometimes spectacularly fail or have temporary outages that tend to spook their customers. Banks typically will resolve an error in their services within hours, and no customer is liable for any errors in their accounts that occur when these happen.

Chase announced the glitch Friday on Twitter as customers took to social media to report a negative balance or a double transaction in their accounts.

Goldman Sachs Glitch

Some Apple customers have found it difficult to access their savings from a new account program in partnership with Goldman Sachs.

The program was launched in April, featuring a generous 4.15 percent rate for saving accounts.

Some reports suggest that the program had already attracted as many as $1 billion in deposits within four days of launch.

Goldman is the primary issuer of Apple’s new credit card, which is the only way a customer can open a savings account with the tech giant.

Some customers faced delayed money transfers, while others reported having trouble transferring money from their new Apple accounts, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Goldman Sachs said the difficulties were being faced by a “limited” number of customers and that the delays were often added due to rigorous processes designed to protect user identity.

First Republic Acquisition

Chase acquired First Republic Bank on May 1 and has announced the closure of more than 20 First Republic branches, or a quarter of its locations.

JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, acquired First Republic on May 1 after the San Francisco-based regional bank was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. amid an unprecedented run on deposits in the wake of the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Discrimination at JP Morgan Chase

Chase Bank has been criticized for religious and political discrimination, notably in a letter by 19 state attorneys general to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

On March 23, 14 state treasurers penned a letter to Dimon, stating their “concern that the bank is engaged in what appears to be politically motivated de-banking of certain industries, individuals, and groups.”

Longstanding Chase shareholder David Bahnsen issued a proposal at JP Morgan’s shareholders meeting on May 16, calling for the bank to investigate the matter and clarify its position on religious and political discrimination against its customers.

JPMorgan fought against the proposal, first by asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to disallow it. But the SEC ruled on March 29 that the proposal could proceed to a vote.

The bank then urged shareholders to vote against the proposal. JPMorgan Chase has since denied the allegations of political or religious discrimination. One day prior to the shareholder vote, JPMorgan’s board of directors issued a statement that Bahnsen’s proposal was “based on allegations that are not true.”

JP Morgan Chase’s largest shareholder is BlackRock, which has been a prominent advocate of progressive causes. BlackRock did not support Bahnsen’s proposal.

“There’s an incredible amount of pressure on large financial institutions to debank people because of their religious or political beliefs that are out of line with progressive values, and for the folks who are debanked that’s a terrifying prospect,” Jeremy Tedesco, Allegiance Defending Freedom (ADF) senior counsel, told The Epoch Times. “But the real damage is to civil society.”

Tedesco said that “politicized debanking appears to be on the rise at Chase.” He cites a discrepancy between the bank’s top ratings from left-leaning organizations and dismal ratings according to more conservative criteria like intellectual diversity.

On social issues, JPMorgan Chase scored a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Coalition’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies according to their “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Equality.” However, according to the Viewpoint Diversity Index published by ADF, JPMorgan scored only 9 percent out of 100, a decrease from 15 percent the previous year.

JP Morgan and Jeffrey Epstein

JP Morgan has also been criticized for its relationship with deceased financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Dimon recently denied ever meeting Epstein and said he was unaware that the bank was conducting an internal investigation into its former relationship with Epstein.

There were lawsuits filed by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and an anonymous accuser that claim the bank knowingly benefited from participating in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.

In March, JPMorgan filed a lawsuit against its former investment banking chief Jes Staley, alleging that Staley protected Epstein. The bank requested that he return all of his compensation from 2006 through 2013 while employed at the bank, totaling more than $80 million.

Staley has claimed that he was unaware of Epstein’s sex crimes despite maintaining a friendly relationship while in his position as chief.

The Associated Press, Brian Jung, Kevin Stocklin, and Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.