What happened?
OCBC Bank, one of the largest banks in Singapore, faced a network outage on Monday morning (Aug 28) that affected all of its banking services, including mobile and online banking, PayNow, ATMs, Velocity and cards. The bank said in a Facebook post that it was experiencing “technical problems with our systems” and that customers could visit its branches for urgent transactions. The outage started at around 8.30am and lasted for about four hours.
The bank apologized for the inconvenience and assured customers that their data and money were safe and secure. It also said that it was investigating the cause of the problem and would provide an update as soon as possible.
How did it affect customers?
Many customers reported having difficulties in using the bank’s services, such as paying bills, transferring money, withdrawing cash and using public transport. Some said that their credit card transactions were declined and that they were unable to log in to their mobile or online banking accounts. Some also expressed frustration and embarrassment over the situation.
One customer, Ms Samantha Shum, 23, who works in real estate, said: “I tried accessing mobile banking services at around 10.45am but was still unable to log in to my account. I’m not worried because the outages usually resolve quite quickly and I have other bank accounts. But people who use only OCBC are probably more frustrated.”
Another customer, Mr Tan Wei Liang, 32, who works in IT, said: “I was trying to pay my phone bill using PayNow but it kept saying that the service was unavailable. I had to use another bank’s app to make the payment. It was quite annoying.”
How did the bank restore its services?
The bank said that it managed to restore all of its banking services by 12.22pm. It said that card and branch services were restored at 10.33am, while ATM services were back up at 10.37am. However, internet banking, mobile banking and Velocity were still impacted until noon.
The bank said that it was on standby to deploy additional resources at branches and extend branch banking hours to support customers. It also thanked customers for their patience and understanding.
How did the authorities react?
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank and financial regulator of Singapore, said that it was aware of the OCBC network outage and was monitoring the situation closely. It said that it expected OCBC to conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the incident and take appropriate measures to prevent a recurrence.
MAS also reminded all financial institutions to ensure that their IT systems are robust and resilient, and that they have effective business continuity plans in place.
