NEW YORK — Bank of America Corp., the nation's biggest bank by assets, continues to suffer issues with its online banking website on Monday, a problem that has persisted since last Friday.
Bank of America is not saying why some customers trying to access the bank's homepage or their personal accounts are experiencing slowness or access issues, but the bank said it is not a result of hacking or malware.
Nonetheless, the timing is interesting because of the bank's decision last week to charge some customers a $5 monthly fee for debit-card purchases, which caused outrage among its customers. Bank of America reiterated again Monday that there was no link between the debit-card fee and the website trouble.
Bank spokeswoman Tara Burke said most customers can access their accounts and that the messages customers are getting are a "proactive attempt" to direct some traffic away from the site, allowing the bank to slow usage and handle the underlying cause.
"We're sorry, but some of our pages are temporarily unavailable," A message on the bank's homepage said. "Thanks for your patience."
The problems initially started on Friday, continued to impact sporadic accounts Saturday and have come back Monday, key dates for customers who get paid on the first of the month or owe bills.
The bank has refused to release details on whether the problem is nationwide or impacting only certain areas. It also hasn't given a number of how many customers are impacted.
The problems have weighed on Bank of America's share price, which is now below $6 for the first time since March 2009. The stock recently fell 8.3% to $5.62, amid a broad decline in financial stocks.
Outside security experts said they thought the problems and the bank's response seemed to bear the hallmarks of a so-called denial-of-service attack, a maneuver that attempts to overwhelm a target's servers with a flood of data traffic.
Burke said there was not a denial-of-service attack ongoing.
Whatever the cause, Bank of America should provide more details either way, said Richard J. Bortnick, a lawyer with Cozen O'Connor and a specialist in cyber and technology risks.
"If Bank of America is intentionally slowing down its system, transparency commands that they tell their customers what they are doing, why they are doing it and how long it should last," Bortnick said.
Bank of America's debit fee has raised the ire of many consumers and consumer groups last week, despite other large national banks having undertaken similar steps recently. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) are both "testing" monthly fees on debit cards in some regions, though both have been charging $3 a month in the trials. Other banks have also announced $5 monthly fees, including SunTrust Banks Inc.
At the end of June, the bank had 29.7 million active online banking accounts, more than half of which use the bank's bill-paying services from the website. The days immediately around the first of the month typically generate higher volume on the bank's website.
