A contrite Butterfield Bank late yesterday conceded that while they had made great progress in resolving frustrating client problems with banking systems, there were issues that remained.

In an e-mail to customers, the bank said upfront: “We offer you our sincere apologies.”

A planned upgrade to banking systems has proved to be anything but, in the short term.

The bank admitted Monday afternoon: “We recognise the recent and necessary upgrade to our banking systems, part of our continued commitment to deliver an improved client experience, resulted in an unsatisfactory level of service last week.

“We are truly sorry for the difficulties you may have experienced and the inconvenience caused.”

Butterfield added: “Our technicians have worked throughout the weekend to correct the issues clients were experiencing with user access to Butterfield Online, online payments and missing beneficiaries.

“We have also worked with Mastercard to resolve an unrelated issue that caused some debit card transactions to be declined.

“The team remains focused on implementing fixes to the remaining issues, including those related to transfers between own accounts and missing templates, in priority order.”

The e-mail concluded: “We value your business and thank you for your patience.”

But the bank also told customers in the e-mail: “If you are having trouble receiving One Time Passwords and you are using an e-mail address from One Communications including @northrock.bm, @logic.bm or @ibl.bm, you may need to contact them by calling 441-700-7000 to confirm if access to your e-mail account needs to be restored.

“If you bank using our mobile app, please make sure you have downloaded the new ‘Butterfield Online Banking’ mobile app from the Apple App Store or Google Play store.”

Butterfield took its online system down for the holiday weekend the day before Good Friday.

The system went live again on Easter Monday morning, with customers immediately complaining about being locked out of accounts and about payments from their accounts being duplicated.

Bank customers also complained that the beneficiaries list in their corporate accounts had disappeared, causing issues for Friday and mid-month pay days.

Customers were also faced with difficulties of money transfers involving other banks.

By the weekend, more customers had lost patience with the bank, and joined those venting on social media.

And at day’s end on Monday, a bank spokesperson said: “We continue to experience high call volumes, however if clients are experiencing issues and need urgent assistance, they can speak to our client service team by calling 295-1111 and pressing 6 or they can contact their relationship manager directly.”