Banca Sella and HYPE: Issues Resolved. What Happened?

Banca Sella and HYPE: Services Restored After Four Days of Disruptions

Banca Sella and HYPE have finally resumed their services on Friday, following over four days of disruptions that left customers unable to access their accounts (and their money).

What Happened?

The announcement of the resolution for Banca Sella’s customers came last Friday after days of service unavailability from Monday 8th to Thursday 11th of April.
The bank reported having identified the reasons behind the malfunction of its services.

Here is a guide on how to request a refund for the inconveniences experienced:

It all started in the late hours of Sunday, April 7th, when some users began reporting issues.
These few reports then snowballed starting Monday morning: Banca Sella and HYPE customers were unable to access their current account or securities account, withdraw cash, or make/send payments and transfers.
Money.it was the first to report on this.

It was impossible to access the mobile banking app and withdraw cash from ATMs.
In the evening, the bank explained to Money.it that the cause was a “internal technical problem that occurred after some routine maintenance interventions,” specifying that “banking services (account balances, transaction lists, card availability, etc.) were functioning normally, the slowdowns and access difficulties were only related to online channels.”

The Reason Behind Banca Sella’s Disruptions

The inability to access online services (Sella app, Sella Invest app, Internet Banking, and Smart Business Sella) was manifested after some system and software updates over the weekend.
Banca Sella’s technicians, with the support of Oracle and other external service providers, worked tirelessly to resolve the issue.

Banca Sella’s handling of the “crisis” was heavily criticized by online users, especially for the lack of clarity and communication in the initial days of disruptions.
Informative pages on Banca Sella, Hype, and Fabrick websites arrived hours late, according to many user tweets and customers of Banca Sella.

Thanks to the responses from the bank’s social team, it was revealed that the malfunction was caused by “the installation of an operating system and firmware update” attributed to the IT partner Oracle.

Further details were provided by Giuseppe Virgone, CEO of HYPE.
The CEO attributed the cause of the malfunction to “the installation of some routine maintenance updates on the systems hosting the databases that support transactions and online services,” emphasizing how “in many fintech companies, including ours, core banking systems (i.e., the services that manage movements on accounts) are provided by third parties.”

Virgone stated that the database software update has been ongoing for months and aims to “maintain full control and prevent such issues in the future.”

HYPE’s CEO concluded by saying, “We will do our best to make you forget these difficult days with initiatives dedicated to you and with the intention of making up for the inconveniences you have suffered.”

It is important to note that throughout the four days of disruptions, operations could only be carried out in branches, which, given the situation, remained open until 6:00 pm.