Clients of DSB Bank continued to have difficulty in accessing their accounts online on Friday report various media.

The bank is still officially blaming hackers for the problems but a bank employee told ANP press service on Friday morning that the website had crashed because too many clients were trying to move their money, reports the NRC.
Financial services watchdog AFM which has already fined DSB and is keeping a careful eye on the bank, declined to comment on whether it is investigating the possibility that the bank intentionally limited access to its website on Thursday to prevent a bank run, says the Volkskrant.
The bank told the paper it has opened a telephone number through which customers can transfer money and that the situation is calm following the withdrawal of around €60m, or one percent of clients’ total savings, on Thursday.
Mistakes admitted
On Thursday evening two of DSB’s executives admitted that the bank has made mistakes in the past when it comes to mortgage loans. Speaking on Nova, Hans van Goor said ‘With the wisdom we have in 2009, we would not make the same mistakes.’ His colleague Robin Winschoten made a similar apology on the Pauw & Witteman show.
The problems with DSB’s website started on Thursday morning following a call by Pieter Lakeman, who heads a lobby group of disgruntled DSB clients, to remove their money from the bank. The call was intended to lead to a run on the bank and force it into bankruptcy.
In a reaction on Friday, Lakeman told the NRC: ‘DSB is not prepared to talk about compensation. If the bank is bankrupt, then we can deal with the receiver who will look only at the interests of creditors’.
Meanwhile, the AD reported on Friday that the bank’s owner, Dick Scheringa, was trying to avoid the press although this was denied by the bank.
‘Totally idiotic’
Earlier this week finance minister Wouter Bos described the mortgage sales practices of the DSB bank as ‘totally idiotic’ reports Friday’s Volkskrant.
A parliamentary majority wants him to take action against the bank but Bos has made it clear this is the task of the financial services watchdog AFM which has already fined DSB and is keeping a careful eye on the bank, the paper says.
Meanwhile, despite its ‘outsider’ status, the mainstream banks are now rallying around in support of the DSB, reports the paper. The central bank and the banking association have described Lakeman’s call for a bank run as ‘not very sensible’, the paper says.
If the DSB collapses, the other banks will be responsible for ‘coughing up’ the money to ensure DSB clients get their savings back under the bank guarantee scheme, the paper points out. On top of this they stand to lose billions of euros from the mortgages they have sold to DSB.