>No such thing as "an algorithm run amuck" - more like "another department run amuck". Someone programmed the thing, someone is running it deliberately.
Not to defend banks, but you know how many bugs the average large software system has?
With such a critical activity that has the potential to destroy lives, "a bug" is not a good enough excuse. Hire a human to override the bug driven decision. These aren't bugs but conscious decisions taken by each bank because the fallout is on few enough customers that they don't need to worry. I've worked with/in enough banks to know someone intentionally drew a line and everyone who happens to fall under it can just suck it up.
You're not wrong. Chase has 18.5 million checking accounts and 25 million debit cards, so they can afford to lose a whole lot of small customers while still saving a bunch of money with the automation.
That’s the danger with the size of these things. With 18.5 million customers, they could literally murder a couple dozen a year and it’d be hardly noticeable.
I'm not arguing that the system must not have bugs, really - you are right there. I'm arguing that since everyone knows it does, then the system must provide for that. That is, the institution that we are buying the service from needs to be able to sort things out when it happens. Here we have abundant examples where they have no plan to even notice anything. - And that then they should not be surprised when we are desperate to find a better institution that is not THEM.
Not to defend banks, but you know how many bugs the average large software system has?