Customers of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) faced a significant disruption on Wednesday as they struggled to access their accounts, with many seeing zero balances. The bank has since addressed the issue, stating it has been largely resolved.
What Happened: The outage began around 12:45 p.m. ET, as reported by Downdetector, a service that monitors online disruptions. Numerous customers expressed their frustration over being unable to view their account balances, with some accounts appearing to have no funds, CNN reported on Wednesday.
Bank of America acknowledged the issue, stating, "some clients are experiencing an issue accessing their accounts and balance information today." The bank assured that efforts are underway to resolve the problems and apologized for any inconvenience caused.
Despite these assurances, the cause of the outage remains unknown, and it is unclear when all systems will be fully operational. Several CNN employees with accounts at the bank confirmed their inability to access online services during the afternoon.
One customer on Downdetector reported, "Five accounts show zero balance, over 20K." Another mentioned being unable to log in while their spouse could, though her accounts displayed no balance.
Why It Matters: The outage comes at a time when Bank of America is aggressively expanding its retail banking presence. The bank recently announced plans to open over 165 new financial centers across 63 U.S. markets by 2026, including nearly 40 centers this year. This expansion follows the opening of more than 100 centers in the last two years.
Such outages are not uncommon in the banking sector. Earlier this year, thousands of HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HSBC) customers in Britain faced similar issues. Additionally, a widespread Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) service outage in July affected several sectors globally, including banks.