Merger between Bpost Bank and BNP Paribas runs into issues

Belgian consumer protection agency Test Achats has received dozens of complaints following issues that arose from the merger between Bpost Bank and BNP Paribas Fortis last week.

As part of that merger, one million Bpost Bank customers were switched to BNP Paribas Fortis. While the company had warned that there would be some disruption during the transition period, everything was supposed to be back to normal by Monday.

Despite those assurances, customers reported cards that no longer worked, blocked accounts and an unavailable banking app.

“Some Bpost Bank customers enter their card number instead of their customer number when installing the 'Easy Banking' application,” said spokesperson Hilde Junius. “After several attempts, they find themselves blocked.”

BNP Paribas had increased its call centre staff to deal with any problems that might arise in the transition and branches had extra staff on hand.

Although it was a very small percentage of customers who experienced problems, Le Soir reports, it was enough to clog up the helpdesks.

Junius said the banking app’s functions are not yet fully available to customers who have yet to receive a bank card from BNP Paribas Fortis.

“But this problem should be resolved in the next few weeks, once everyone has received their new card,” said Junius. “We are doing everything we can to resolve these problems as quickly as possible.”

BNP Paribas Fortis said that more than half of the customers involved in the transition have successfully downloaded its new banking app.

The bank has created a special webpage to guide new customers, but expects that it may take a while longer before the merger is fully implemented successfully.