The number of complaints made against Scotiabank México had risen to 173 by Wednesday after customers encountered problems following a systems upgrade.

The president of Condusef, the financial consumer protection agency that received the complaints, told the news agency Notimex that he expected the number to continue to increase.

Mario Di Costanzo said Scotiabank customers have experienced issues using both the bank’s mobile application and ATMs and that the most common complaint has been about the inability to make bank transfers.

The Condusef chief said that special attention would be given to complaints from customers who incurred late fees because they were unable to transfer funds to pay for expenses such as tuition for their children.

Di Costanzo added that Condusef will seek a detailed report from Scotiabank about what happened and whether customers will be reimbursed, adding that sanctions will be imposed if it doesn’t receive a response.

Scotiabank announced last week that a range of its services would be unavailable between September 28 and 30 but operations would resume Monday, October 1.

The CEO of Scotiabank México said yesterday that the problems some customers have faced was an expected consequence of the process to modernize the bank’s system, adding that in the short term they could persist.

“We could continue to see interruptions but business is back to normal and we are now operating with the new platform,” Enrique Zorrilla Fullaondo said.

He added that the bank has been in contact with affected customers and that charges incurred as a result of any problems they experienced would be waived.

“. . . They are customers that we have developed relationships with and they have been extremely understanding and patient during the enormous process we undertook,” Zorrilla said.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp), El Universal (sp)