In recent days, many customers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) suddenly found that their ICBC mobile app was malfunctioning, with their deposits, financial management, and debts showing as zero, causing panic among users. It took two days for the app to return to normal.
On the evening of October 29th, some ICBC depositors in China discovered abnormalities in the ICBC app, leading to their savings, financial management, and debts all showing as zero, causing chaos on social media. Many ICBC depositors expressed shock when they saw their deposits reduced to zero on the app.
On October 31st, a user from Henan Province shared that on the night of the 29th, when he went out for drinks and tried to withdraw money to pay the bill, he saw that his account balance showed zero, which made him panic and report it to the police. After his app displayed the correct information, he immediately withdrew money from ICBC, transferred some to HSBC, and the rest to China Merchants Bank.
On October 31st, a netizen from Zhejiang Province posted that the fund they had purchased at ICBC suddenly showed a balance of zero. “Although it’s not a large amount, losing 3800 yuan out of the blue has made me doubt this world… Banks can just zero out your money out of nowhere. Although the transaction details are there, I couldn’t find this money in my account.”
In her program on the 31st, a blogger named Ling from Guangzhou said, “When I opened the bank app yesterday, I saw everything was zero. My first reaction was to think my phone was infected with a virus? I almost called the police.”
She further mentioned, “It wasn’t until I checked my friends’ circle that I realized many ICBC users nationwide had their accounts zeroed out.”
Upon seeing the discussions online, a netizen from Guangdong said, “No wonder my dad called me yesterday morning (on the 30th) saying his savings disappeared. It was his life’s savings. I even called the police and asked if he clicked any links.”
Some users even claimed to have additional money in their accounts. Ms. Wu from Guangdong explained, “When I checked on the 30th, there was an extra 10,000 yuan. It made me check repeatedly over a dozen times, and by the morning of the 31st, everything was back to normal.”
On October 30th, ICBC customer service explained to the media that the financial asset data display within the app was delayed, stating, “The data on the interface shows a delay, but the amount of money in the account remains factual and will not undergo any changes.”
A former employee of the Technology Department at the headquarters commented in the discussion section, “This is definitely a significant internal bug, at least starting from a level three fault. The customer service response is just a cover-up for the network abnormality we faced at that time.”
Regarding the cause of the malfunction, an employee from a bank in Guangdong noted, “Some customers showed a decrease in their accounts, so it’s unreasonable to use delayed interface as an excuse. If it’s just an interface delay, it either wouldn’t display, or the data shown would be correct. Therefore, it definitely involves other errors, and we can only wait for the bank to announce the specific reasons.”
While ICBC has mostly returned to normalcy, there are still users from Beijing on November 1st (Saturday) who expressed concerns that they still couldn’t access their accounts and asked if others were experiencing the same issues on social platforms.
After experiencing this incident with ICBC, many are discussing how to keep their money safer.
Ling reminded her audience during her program, “This incident has severely shaken the basic sense of security for us depositors. So, I must remind everyone today, firstly, don’t put all your eggs in one basket; learn to diversify your assets. Secondly, do not excessively rely on apps. It’s best to print out a paper statement at the counter every month or regularly check paper statements. Holding a piece of paper with black and white numbers on it feels more secure than virtual data.”
Such system malfunctions are not unprecedented. Back in late 2023 on December 18th, the China Construction Bank experienced a system collapse, where customers visiting branches were informed of the system failure and offline services were temporarily unavailable.