DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s local digital banking service disruption persisted into the 10th hour, an issue that’s happening more than a year after Southeast Asia’s biggest bank suffered one of its worst tech outages.
(Bloomberg) — DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s local digital banking service disruption persisted into the 10th hour, an issue that’s happening more than a year after Southeast Asia’s biggest bank suffered one of its worst tech outages.
The lender extended branch services by two hours Wednesday as it works to recover digital services, DBS said in an updated statement on its Singapore Facebook post. “Please be assured that your deposits and monies are safe and secure,” the bank said.
While unusual for a sector known for its constant availability, Wednesday’s incident is reminiscent of the outage the bank suffered in 2021 — one of its worst digital disruptions in the past decade. Under Monetary Authority of Singapore regulations, financial institutions need to ensure that the maximum unscheduled downtime for each critical system doesn’t exceed four hours within any period of 12 months.
Shares of DBS were little changed Wednesday, closing 0.1% lower.
Clients using DBS mobile and digital banking platforms have been unable to access the services since around 7 a.m. local time, according to Downdetector. The services are still unavailable, DBS said in its post. Customers can still transact using their DBS cards, the bank said, adding it’s doing its best to resolve the situation. The issue is limited to Singapore, a spokesperson for the bank said earlier.
After the 2021 incident, the MAS ordered DBS to set aside S$930 million ($700 million) of regulatory capital after that episode left thousands of customers unable to log on to its digital platforms for at least two days. Those issues stemmed from the bank’s access control servers.
MAS has asked DBS to validate the bank’s remedial actions with regards to the 2021 event by July this year, DBS said earlier this week.
–With assistance from Andrea Tan.
(Updates with DBS’s latest comments in first two paragraphs)
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