You’re the Boss Blog: What’s Going On With My Bank?

Staying Alive

The struggles of a business trying to survive.

Wednesday was kind of a busy day, but late in the afternoon I tried to log in to my bank’s Web site to see what checks had posted (I bank with PNC). I couldn’t get in. Web sites don’t load now and then, and I didn’t give it much thought.

Yesterday morning I was discussing the payments we expected to receive this week with my two salesmen, Don and Nate. They are responsible for sending out invoices and keeping track of whether we have been paid with a cash management spreadsheet. Nate had received verbal confirmation of a sale of a conference table on Tuesday and added it to our production queue. We normally require a deposit in hand to do this, but you know how it goes — putting up a sales number is fun, and we were convinced the deal was a go. Why not do the client a favor and schedule manufacturing?

I asked Nate whether we had received a deposit from a new customer I’ll call Company T. This client had said it was  sending its deposit through an electronic funds transfer. Nate hadn’t heard whether the deposit, a little more than $9,000, had been sent and suggested I check the bank Web site to see whether the payment had posted. I tried again to log in, and again couldn’t connect. Hmmm. I tried refreshing several times, quitting and restarting the browser, and finally tried using two other browsers. Eventually PNC displayed a page that said the site was experiencing some technical issues and that I should try later. Again, other duties pressed and I set it aside.

At the end of Thursday, Don took a credit card from a client he had been working with — let’s call it Company S. We added the client to our list, but now I had a problem: Who gets the first available production time, Company T or Company S? They both wanted their tables as soon as possible, so the first one to commit money would get it. The call from Company S happened late on Thursday, just as I was walking out the door. I figured I would sort it out on Friday morning.

So when I came in on Friday, I tried again to log in, and this time nothing at all came up. This was starting to seem strange. As it happened, I needed some cash, so I hopped in my car to go to the local branch and see what was going on. When I got there, I was told that hackers had taken down the PNC Web site and that a number of major banks had been affected. The teller had no idea when it would be back up. At least I was able to see, on the bank’s own computers, that Company T’s transfer had gone through on Thursday.

Back at the office, I tried again to log in. No luck. I’ve continued to try throughout the day, and even as I wrote this post (early afternoon) I couldn’t get in. Now I’m a little worried. My bookkeeper won’t be able to reconcile our payments for the week, and I won’t be able to confirm that my cash management plans are still current. And beyond that: what’s up with PNC?

There hasn’t been much news about this incident (The Times’s Bits blog ran a post), but I was able to find out that a number of major banks had been affected. I have accounts with Chase and Wells Fargo, and I was able to get access to both of them, although it took a while to log in. PNC seems to have been hit harder or not been as nimble in response.

It’s disconcerting, to say the least, to find out how vulnerable my bank is to an outside attack. It’s been a disruption to my business that I didn’t expect, and the longer it goes on, the more worrisome it becomes.

I have planned my business around ready access to up-to-date financial information and rely on it to make sure I’m solvent. This particular week I have some cushion in my accounts, but I’ve lived through many periods where knowing whether $9,000 had arrived or not would make all the difference in the world — if I were trying to make payroll, for instance, or trying to make sure that critical materials shipped, or trying to avoid penalty payments on a credit card.

Is anyone else having trouble seeing their accounts right now?

Paul Downs founded Paul Downs Cabinetmakers in 1986. It is based outside Philadelphia.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/whats-going-on-with-my-bank/?partner=rss&emc=rss