SINGAPORE, Nov 25 — The lengthy disruption of DBS bank’s digital banking services since Tuesday morning (November 23) was caused by a problem with its access control server, its country head for Singapore said.
Speaking in a Facebook video yesterday, Shee Tse Koon apologised for the inconvenience and said that the bank will keep its branches open by two more hours to serve customers.
“I realise that this is a cause for concern and frustration and I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and the anxiety it has caused,” he said.
Shee explained that the bank had identified the issue with its access control server on Tuesday and worked with third-party engineering providers to fix the problem.
Services were restored at 2am yesterday, prompting the bank to post on Facebook that all digital banking services had been restored.
However, later in the morning, services were disrupted again with many customers expressing their frustration on DBS’ Facebook page when they could not access their online accounts.
Shee said that although the situation was less severe than on Tuesday, he and his team know that many people are still unable to get access. He wanted to assure customers that all their deposits and monies are safe.
“We acknowledge the gravity of the situation and as we work to resolve matters, we seek your patience and understanding.”
He advised customers to visit bank branches or use phone banking if they need assistance.
DBS’ digital banking services remained down as of 4pm on Wednesday, with more than 200 users reporting problems accessing DBS’ digital banking services, as reflected on outage monitoring website Downdetector.
In response to queries from TODAY, Marcus Lim, assistant managing director (banking and insurance) at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said that it had been following up closely with the bank on the service disruption since Tuesday.
“MAS expects all financial institutions to have systems and processes to ensure the consistent availability of financial services to their customers,” he added.
“This is a serious disruption and MAS expects DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the root causes and implement the necessary remedial measures. MAS will consider appropriate supervisory actions following the investigation.” ― TODAY
