MANILA, Philippines—The Bank of the Philippine Islands will conduct a major systems upgrade on October 19, Saturday.

The Ayala-led BPI said the systems upgrade would take place from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. of Saturday.

“This is in line with our continuing efforts to provide more advanced services and capabilities for you,” the bank said.

The bank advised its clients to plan their weekend transactions accordingly since most of its banking channels would be temporarily unavailable.

Among the channels affected are the online banking, mobile app, BizLink and ELink platforms as well as ATMs, Cash Accept Machines and debit card services.

BPI said all of its branches would also be closed on Saturday.

The bank said its credit card and prepaid card services would remain accessible on the said dates.

A BPI systems upgrade in April led to service disruptions, with services unavailable to clients days after the upgrade was supposed to have finished.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said then that banks should "formulate and implement sound and effective change management processes to ensure the integrity and reliability of their production environment." The central bank also urged banks to have a roll-back program in place in case of problems with migrating to a new system.

BPI is the country’s fourth largest bank in terms of assets. – Rosette Adel