SINGAPORE – The disruption of DBS Bank’s digital services just a little over a year after a similar incident in November 2021 is unacceptable, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
In response to queries, MAS – the country’s financial regulator – said it takes seriously the reliability of banks’ critical IT systems, and that DBS has fallen short of MAS’ expectations to maintain the availability of systems at a high level.
MAS added that it has instructed DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to establish the root cause of the disruption and submit the findings to the regulator.
“MAS will take the commensurate supervisory actions after gathering the necessary facts,” said MAS.
DBS notified MAS early on Wednesday morning that its customers were experiencing difficulties logging into its digital banking services, it added.
It said: “MAS has been in close contact with DBS to ensure expedited recovery of its digital services and timely communications to customers on the disruption.
“We note the bank has since resumed normal digital banking services and is monitoring the situation.”
The 12 hour-long disruption of DBS’ services on Wednesday rendered customers unable to use the bank’s digital banking services.
From about 7am, users began reporting that DBS digibank online and mobile services were down.
At about 8.30am, there had been more than 360 reports from DBS customers who were having trouble logging into the portal.
By about 7.30pm, all DBS/POSB digibank mobile and online services, as well as DBS PayLah! and DBS mTrading services, had returned to normal.
In a statement late on Wednesday, DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta said the bank is disappointed that many of its customers were unable to access digital banking services.
He said: “We hold ourselves to higher standards, and it is our utmost priority to review the events of today. We acknowledge the gravity of the situation, appreciate our customers’ understanding, and deeply regret the inconvenience caused.”
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