The Bank of Bermuda/HSBC yesterday admitted that the ?challenges? from its changeover to its new $30 million electronic banking system had lasted longer than expected.

Since the Bank launched its upgrade on October 16, many customers have had to grapple with using correct pin numbers, pass words or faced problems using debit cards overseas, long lines in banking halls and experienced delays at the Call Centre.

But while the Bank said it had had received a number of complaints from clients, it maintained it would not have done things differently.

?We always expected there to be challenges as we implemented our new banking system,? a Bank spokeswoman said.

?We never underestimated the scope of this project, which involved the demise of 11 significant legacy systems onto one new system that caters to our corporate, commercial and personal customers.?

The conversion, which took place over a single weekend, required the migration of some 105,000 current accounts, the mailing out of 35,000 debit cards to our customers, the registration of 14,000 personal internet banking users along with the migration of all other accounts and records to the new system.

?This is the first time a migration of this integrative scale and complexity has even been accomplished in the HSBC Group,? the spokeswoman said.

But the Bank admitted that it has been surprised by some unexpected challenges.

?The challenges have lasted longer than expected, but we see this as a journey and there is still progress to be made,? she said.

?We did not expect our customers to have difficulties when using their debit cards overseas in the first week after conversion, as we had coordinated our efforts with Visa.

?While we recognise we have faced a number of technical problems, which we have been able to rectify in short order, we also realise our staff and our customers have faced problems as they adapt to the change.

?Problems have also arisen when servicing those corporate clients who missed deadlines for registering for HSBCNet in August.?

The Bank of Bermuda said its staff and management were aware of the frustrations the changes had caused to some customers and were working diligently to resolve any issues they may have.

?We have over the last two weeks experienced an exceptionally high volume of calls, and despite both additional staff and extended hours, including weekends, Call Centre waiting times have been longer than desired.

?We advise that the situation is improving on a day-to-day basis. Our banking halls have been very busy over the last couple of weeks for a number of reasons, some associated with the new system and some in connection with month-end payroll, which in any event is usually a very busy time for us.?

The Bank said it had assisted many customers with queries and had employed additional staff in the Bank?s branches to help with enquiries.

Also many cheques were still being presented with the old customer account number on them, which forced tellers to obtain the new number from the system before proceeding with the transaction.

As new chequebooks are introduced, the Bank expects this additional work will diminish.

The Bank said it expected the challenges would lessen as staff and customers became more familiar with the new system and said the success of the conversion so far was a testament to the dedication of its staff and patience of customers.

?We feel that we are adequately prepared in terms of planning, which spanned over two years, we conducted a number of simulations to prepare for the conversion and held extensive staff training, which amounted to over 36 hours per staff member,? the spokeswoman said. ?However, simulations will never replace the reality of going live with a new system.?