From: bowen@prg.ox.ac.uk (Jonathan Bowen)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,uk.misc
Subject: Bugs and bytes bedevil those paying by plastic
Date: 13 Aug 92 09:13:02 GMT
Reply-To: Jonathan.Bowen@prg.oxford.ac.uk (Jonathan Bowen)
Organization: Programming Research Group, Oxford University, UK

Software bugs can nowadays very easily affect millions of people as
more and more activities associated with our everyday lives are
computerized. For example, a large number of people now own credit
cards that are processed by a relatively small number of computer
centres. Changing these systems can cause unforeseen errors, and this
has recently happened in the UK. Most of yesterday's UK newspapers
covered this story and I enclose some extracts below. In fact, it
appears that not many of those how could potentially have been affected
have actually been inconvenienced in this case, but who knows next
time?

The above subject title was enough to tempt me to ask one of our
secretaries (she wasn't busy - she was reading "news" at the time! :-)
to type in some of the following article on page 6 of the August 12
1992 edition of the UK Financial Times:

    Bugs and bytes bedevil those paying by plastic
    ----------------------------------------------

    David Barchard, Andrew Jack and Alan Cane on the damage
    done to the credit card industry by a software glitch

    WHEN first Data Resources introduced new computer software
    systems on July 17, it could not have foreseen that a
    consequence would be to attract unwelcome publicity to the
    credit card processing industry.
      The company handles the payment card operations of National
    Westminster, Midland and Lloyds banks [three of the largest
    banks in the UK], as well as Royal Bank of Scotland.  The
    result is that the change in software affected some 10m
    accounts.  A glitch caused mistakes in some card statements and
    yesterday the banks were having to reassure customers that the
    bugs had been resolved with only a few accounts affected.
      Credit card processing is a low-profile industry, and until
    recently it was not even a market in which participants competed
    for business.
      The eyes of FDR and several other companies are now on the
    European card market, which is expected to grow steadily as card
    usage increases and transaction volumes approach levels in the
    mature US market.
      FDR's computer system, introduced from its parent in the US,
      was intended to enhance its card processing operations at
    Southend and Basildon in Essex [southern England].  The
    operations, bought from the Access banks last year, made FDR, a
    subsidiary of the American Express group, the largest credit
    card processor in Europe.
    [...]
      NatWest refused to discuss the technology involved, saying it
    was matter between the bank and FDR.  The troubles seem to lie,
    however, in the accounting and reconciliation ("back office")
    software, which is used to manage the card transactions and pass
    information to the banks' main computers.
      Mr Gary Tobin, a senior vice-president of First Data
    Corporation, the parent of FDR, emphasised that errors unrelated
    to the company's equipment might be responsible for some of the
    complaints over credit cards.  He said only a few hundred errors
    had been recorded, a small total when converting some 10m
    customer records from one computer system to another.
      He said the conversion was necessary because Signet, the card
    processing company acquired by FDR last year, which had been
    responsible for card processing in Southend, was using
    20-year-old software that lacked up-to-date facilities or
    security.  The new software was developed in the US and
    "anglicised" for UK use.  Preparation took a year and involved
    100,000 programming hours.
      The entire customer list was transferred to the new system over
    one weekend in July, he said.  It would not have been possible
    to run the old and new systems in parallel because of the cost
    of providing duplicate hardware.
      Old computer systems are notoriously difficult to manage and
    maintain because they will have been patched and modified over
    the years.
    [...]


The Independent (a UK "quality" newspaper) put it more boringly on
page 4:

    Customers urged to check credit bills
    -------------------------------------

    by Maria Scott

    THE CONSUMERS' Association yester urged customers of some
    of the country's largest credit card issuers to check their
    statements carefully and refuse to pay incorrect bills
    after it emerged that there had been difficulties with one
    of the major computer systems processing card
    transactions.
    [...]
      National Westminster [one of the "big four" banks in the UK]
    said that the main errors affecting the bank's 4.75
    million Visa and Access card holders involved incorrect
    dates being attributed to debits on statements.


The August 11 ITN (Independent Television News) 10 o'clock main evening
news was rather more sensationalist, showing a short clip of someone on
the phone complaining about an unexplained debit of over 4000 pounds
sterling (c $7,500) entry on his account. Surely this must have been a
set-up!

The extracts above are reproduced without permission. My in-line
comments are in square brackets.

--
Jonathan Bowen, Oxford University, a Midland VISA card owner.

--
Jonathan Bowen, <Jonathan.Bowen@comlab.ox.ac.uk>
Oxford University Computing Laboratory.