Above: Republic Bank Executive Director Derwin Howell. Photo courtesy Republic Bank.

On Monday, Republic Bank rolled out a new mobile app and online banking verification system for its customers that has gone off the rails for hundreds of them.

Some initial concerns were about the availability of the US version of Apple’s app store, but those were quickly resolved.

More serious are concerns about the security of the new system, which disallows special characters, while allowing the standard letters and numbers, with a requirement of at least one capital letter and number in a password limited to between eight to twelve characters long.

Since the previous version of the bank’s verification system allowed special characters, some viewed this as a backward step in its security measures.
A new log-in to the system requires either a special one-time password, a QR code or a code sent via SMS.

Users report that the SMS takes too long to reach their mobile devices and the verification session times out before they can enter it.

Cybersecurity professionals expressed concern that the app generates its own security by creating the special One-Time Password (OTP) offered as an option for logging in. The QR code option requires the user to be working with two devices for a successful outcome.

Some users have reported success logging in using a desktop computer with the Edge browser, but even among those users who have achieved that, they have found their accounts and other information missing.

The result has been a general swamping of Republic’s contact systems, with users reporting hourlong waits on the phone to get through to the bank’s customer service personnel.

The bank has issued an apology on social media and to traditional media houses apologising for the glitches in the system resulting from what it described as “a huge response from thousands of customers.”

Republic Bank’s social media presence has been swamped by desperate comments, and the company has so far issued canned responses to often quite irate messages, asking customers to contact its Internet banking team at internetbanking@rfhl.com or to call its call centre at 627-3348.
Mass personal emails apologising for the issues have been dispatched to the bank’s customers.

Questions were posed to the bank’s management about the issue on Tuesday morning, and a revised list of questions incorporating additional concerns raised by users was sent this morning.

Derwin Howell, Executive Director, explained that he had passed the questions on to the bank’s marketing team for a response.
No response has been received after 32 hours.