Error Delays Credit of Electronic Deposits

A programming error during a routine computer maintenance operation at Bank of America caused half-day delays in the crediting of about 800,000 electronic deposits to customers’ accounts Tuesday, triggering a flood of complaints across California.

Deposits that were supposed to be available to customers a minute after midnight Tuesday were hung up until midafternoon, when B of A corrected the problem, bank executives said.

B of A customer Sterling Bugg of Oxnard said he tried to transfer some money from the bank to his account at a brokerage Tuesday morning and was surprised to hear he had insufficient funds.

“I normally transfer money into that [brokerage] account at the beginning of the month,” Bugg said. “If you transfer a little early, [B of A] will write you a whale of a nasty letter, but this time the shoe was on the other foot.”

The problem occurred over the weekend at the bank’s data center in Concord, Calif., when a computer programmer performing a periodic upgrading and maintenance operation failed to activate the part of the program that instructs the computers to “post” electronic deposits to customer accounts, a B of A spokesman said. The mistake involved 70% to 75% of the automatic deposits scheduled to be posted first thing Tuesday, he said.

Hundreds of customers called to complain that their deposits hadn’t been credited, the spokesman said.

B of A technicians corrected the problem and posted the deposits at 2:37 p.m. for Northern California customers and at 4:28 p.m. for those in Southern California, he said.

The bank promised to reverse any insufficient-funds charges levied because of the mistake.