Continuing problems at Sampo Bank leaving personnel exhausted

The technical problems plaguing the new Sampo Bank online banking system and the use of Sampo debit and credit cards, which have continued since the spring, have exhausted the personnel of the bank just as much as they have taxed the patience of customers. And to some extent, the staff - unlike the disgruntled customers - are less able to walk away.
      ”The personnel have been tired as there have been more than enough problems to go around”, says Sampo Bank chief shop steward Hanna Koivisto.
     
The worst situation at the bank occurred in the spring, when a huge number of angry account-holders contacted the Sampo customer service. However, the summer holiday season has somewhat eased the pressures put on the bank’s employees.
      In Koivisto’s view, the number of personnel at Sampo Bank’s customer service is insufficient, and the workload is too heavy.
      ”Our staff has changed as a consequence of the labour market situation. Some people have left, but fortunately, new personnel have come to substitute them. We are also trying to seek out more new employees”, Koivisto concluded.
      The reason for the problems was the merger of the information systems of Sampo Bank and the Danish Danske Bank, which bought Sampo's banking operations last year. The migration of Sampo's online systems to the parent bank's IT platform did not go smoothly, and customers encountered breaks in service and incorrect or missing information on money transfers and bank balances.
      Occasionally, the bank’s customer service telephone lines were badly logjammed, and many clients thought that the answers to their worried e-mails were delayed excessively.
     
The latest round of online problems occurred last week with some student loan contracts.
      A Sampo client reported to Helsingin Sanomat that he did not get his student loan application approved any sooner than in the afternoon of the following day. When the document eventually arrived, the client was surprised to notice that the withdrawal sum written on the contract was EUR 0.00.
      Sampo Bank reports that no mistake happened in the approval process of the loan contract, but as a consequence of a technical problem the withdrawal sum had to be handled manually.
      According to the bank, the technical failure happened to some dozens of customers. Sampo Bank is unable to promise with certainty that the malfunction will have been repaired by the start of the autumn term at universities and colleges.
      Sampo Bank is a brand name for Danske Bank's Finnish and Baltic operations. Sampo Bank was acquired by the Danske Bank Group in 2007.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sampo Bank promises to compensate only direct costs of technical problems (11.4.2008)
  Serious problems with launch of new online service of Sampo Bank (26.3.2008)
  Hundreds of Sampo Bank clients considering changing banks (3.4.2008)
  Sampo Bank online problems continue (27.3.2008)

Links:
  Finnish Sampo Bank Group to be sold to Danish Danske Bank for EUR 4.05 billion (9.11.2006)
  Sampo Bank