UPDATE: On Friday evening, several hours after this story was initially published, RBC issued a statement to CBC News saying it resolved a technical issue involving some auto-deposit e-transfers and that the funds are now in customers’ accounts.
It was a surprising discovery for Tanya Shields first thing Friday morning.
The resident of Fall River, N.S., said she logged on to her Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) account to pay some bills with money she received via e-transfer from clients of her small business.
But the money wasn’t there.
“It was a little bit alarming,” Shields said.
She had received confirmation on Thursday night that the money had been successfully transferred, so the fact that it was missing was a concern.
Shields even had her husband transfer money to her in order to ensure that things were working correctly. His deposit transferred successfully.
“Which was more concerning than the money not being there in the first place,” she said.
Others having similar issues
Shields says she checked social media and the bank’s website, but there was no information that addressed the problem she was having.
She knew banks were closed on Friday and Monday due to the Easter weekend and was concerned she would end up worrying about this for days.
CBC News heard from other bank customers who experienced similar issues.
Jeff Black of Halifax says $2,355.97 was automatically deposited via e-transfers into his RBC account on Thursday, but those funds were missing when he looked at his account on Friday. (CBC News/Google Meet)
Jeff Black, a Halifax-based weapons engineering technician with the Royal Canadian Navy, says he logged on to his RBC account on Friday morning and discovered that the $2,355.97 automatically deposited via e-transfers on Thursday was missing.
The money was going to be used to pay off his property taxes and for supplies needed before he heads out to sea for three weeks.
“It did make me nervous at first, considering I received a great deal of money yesterday, and then it was all gone,” he said.
It was a similar story for Christine Hunt, a controller and administrative worker in Newmarket, Ont. She logged on to her account to find money missing and her account overdrawn.
Christine Hunt of Newmarket, Ont., says $1,000 is missing from her RBC account. She says she called RBC to track down the money and waited on the line for two hours before hanging up. (CBC News/Google Meet)
“I was in a complete panic because that’s $1,000. Where did it go? And the fact that it doesn’t even say it bounced. It’s like it never happened,” she said Friday.
Hunt found the e-transfer deposit confirmation email but still called RBC to find the missing money. She says she waited on the line for two hours before hanging up.
With her bank account in negative territory, she withdrew $200 from her line of credit to cover a prepayment. But she still has no answers as to when she’ll get the money back.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. Are they going to charge me because I did go into the red?” Hunt said. “The fact that it’s not even listed as ever deposited — it’s just blank — is just so weird.”
Hi Shelley, thanks for your message. We are currently experiencing an issue with e-Transfers, that is resulting in recently deposited transfers no longer showing. We’re working to have this resolved ASAP, and we appreciate your patience ^SB
In an emailed statement to CBC News on Friday evening, RBC said it has “resolved the earlier reported issue of account transfers and e-transfers involving auto-deposits recipients. Clients should now expect to see the funds reflected in their accounts.”
The bank went on to say it will “reimburse the small number of clients that may have incurred charges or fees as a result of this technical issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank our clients for their patience while we worked to resolve the matter.”
Earlier in the day, RBC said it had experienced a technical issue with some e-transfers.
“Auto-deposit e-transfers sent between Wednesday, April 13, midnight ET and Thursday, April 14, 11:30 p.m. ET, may not be appearing in client accounts,” reads the statement, posted on RBC’s mobile banking app.
“E-transfers sent outside of that time period are not impacted. We are working to post these entries and reflect accurate account balances as quickly as possible.”
A spokesperson for Interac, the primary funds transfer network in Canada, said its service was “functioning normally” but that it was aware one of its “financial institution partners is experiencing an issue on their end.”
By Friday evening, some customers, including Jeff Black, confirmed to CBC News that refunds have been issued.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
