Piyush Gupta, chief executive officer of DBS Bank, has apologised for the digital disruptions that have occurred recently.

"Our customers rightly expect more of us, and we are committed to doing better," Gupta said in a statement issued on May 5.

Following the 45-minute disruption to DBS' digital services and ATM, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed on DBS an additional capital requirement, which translates to about S$1.6 billion in total.

Additional capital requirement

In February 2022, the bank was required to set aside about S$930 million regulatory capital, following a disruption in November 2021.

This additional capital requirement came after a widespread unavailability of DBS Bank’s digital banking services on March 29, 2023, and a subsequent disruption to its digital banking and ATM services on May 5 that lasted about 45 minutes.

MAS added that the additional capital requirement on DBS is now a multiplier of 1.8 times to its risk weighted assets for operational risk, up from the multiplier of 1.5 times that MAS applied in February 2022.

According to its statement on May 5, MAS said it may subsequently vary the size of the multiplier depending on the outcome of ongoing reviews.

System issue led to May 5 disruption

According to DBS, the brief disruption on May 5 was caused by a system issue that is unrelated to the March 29 incident.

It is also not linked to its 5 Million Hawker Meals programme, which aims to subsidise five million meals over 12 months from Feb. 10, 2023, to Jan. 19, 2024, the bank clarified.

The bank also apologised for the inconvenience caused by the disruption in a statement issued on May 5.

DBS must spare no effort in dealing with issues leading to disruptions: MAS

A Special Board Committee was set up to review the bank's IT resilience after the March 29's disruption.

The review was performed by an independent external expert.

MAS has since directed the bank to conduct a "comprehensive review", including an assessment of the adequacy of management oversight, staff competencies, operational processes, system resiliency, and architecture design for its digital banking services.

DBS has been ordered by MAS to include the May 5 disruption in this review.

Ho Hern Shin, deputy managing director of financial supervision at MAS, said:

“DBS Bank has fallen short of MAS’ expectations for banks to deliver reliable services to their customers. The repeated inconvenience caused to the public is unacceptable. The additional capital requirement imposed at this time underscores the seriousness with which MAS treats this matter. DBS Bank must spare no effort in dealing with the underlying issues leading to these disruptions.”

In his response to May 5 disruption, DBS chief said the bank will complete the review as "a matter of utmost priority" and implement all recommendations "expeditiously".

Top image via DBS Facebook