Monetary Authority of S'pore considering action against DBS for ibanking system outage

MAS expects financial institutions to ensure consistent availability of services to customers.

Belmont Lay | November 25, 2021, 02:39 AM

Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said the disruption to DBS Bank’s online banking services was “serious” and it is considering “supervisory actions”.

Investigation will be conducted first

Singapore's central bank and financial regulatory authority said on Nov. 24, on the second day that DBS Bank's service went down, that it will allow the bank to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident first.

“MAS expects all financial institutions to have systems and processes to ensure the consistent availability of financial services to their customers,” said Marcus Lim, the assistant managing director for banking and insurance at MAS.

“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."

The central bank also said: "MAS will consider appropriate supervisory actions following the investigation."

In the meantime, MAS said it agrees with DBS that the priority should be to fully restore the bank's services and minimise inconvenience to customers.

Solved at first

DBS Bank and its third-party engineering providers had managed to restore services after midnight following the first day of disruptions, but the issues recurred on Wednesday morning.

Customers reassured

Shee Tse Koon, Singapore country head of DBS, then assured customers that their deposits and monies were safe even though the disruption was ongoing.

His comments were made in a video posted to DBS Bank's social media pages.

Customers were told they could use the bank's branches and phone banking services.

All media via DBS Facebook

Follow and listen to our podcast here