Online investment platform StashAway had run into some technical problems earlier this week which caused some users to lose money from their linked bank accounts. It was reported that over 20 debit transactions were made by StashAway on Monday evening.
Obviously the issue had caused panic and unnecessary stress as multiple transactions would have emptied a person’s bank account. The technical glitch had affected users with scheduled recurring deposit which typically debits a specified amount on a monthly or quarterly basis.
According to the Vulcan Post, the issue appears to affect StayAway users in Malaysia as there’s no indication that it had affected its Singaporean users.
StashAway has acknowledged the issue on the 27th of July by email and had explained on their Facebook page that its users were incorrectly debited multiple times for each collection request.
They are also working closely with their direct debit platform provider Curlec to prevent the incident from happening again. StashAway says they have taken additional steps from their end as an added measure.
StashAway had promised to credit back the full over-deducted amount back to their respective users’ bank accounts. The platform had started its refund process on Tuesday afternoon and it appears that several customers have received their money yesterday.
According to The Edge Markets, affected users are offered a voucher for 6 months worth of management fees. StashAway charges an annual management fee of 0.8% for investments up to RM50,000 and 0.7% for additional investments made above RM50,000 to RM100,000. There’s no management fee for those that opt for StashAway Simple.
When asked if StashAway would offer additional compensation, the country manager Wong Wai Ken told The Edge that it is still being discussed internally. A detailed post-mortem report will be shared in the next few days which include an explanation of what had happened.
For those that have yet to receive their funds are urged to contact StashAway via WhatsApp at +60 11-1282 9646, or email them at [email protected].
At the time of writing, StashAway has temporarily disabled its Direct Debit feature. In the meantime, users that wish to make a deposit would have to perform a manual transfer via JomPay or GIRO inter-bank transfer.
