The Business Times

DBS, Citibank banking services resume after hours of disruption on Saturday and Sunday

Published Sat, Oct 14, 2023 · 05:11 PM

DBS Bank said all of its banking services had resumed on Sunday (Oct 15) morning, after more than 12 hours of disruption that began on Saturday afternoon.

In an update on Facebook on Sunday morning, the bank said all its services had returned to normal, including PayLah and digital banking services.

“However, any customer who may still experience difficulties logging in to their accounts via their mobile app can try to log in with digibank online/Internet banking using SMS OTP,” said the update, referring to using one-time passwords.

“We are also aware that some of our customers’ PayNow/Fast transactions were interrupted when the disruption happened, and will be processing these with utmost priority.”

The bank added that customers will be updated on the status of their transactions when processing is completed.

Citibank said in a Facebook post at about 7pm on Saturday that its mobile app and Internet banking services were down.

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At around 10am on Sunday, Citibank said in a Facebook post that its mobile app and Internet banking services had “resumed overnight”.

In an update on Sunday morning, a Citi spokesman said: “We extend our deepest apologies for the inconvenience caused by the disruption in our banking services.”

The bank also apologised to customers who were unable to reach Citi employees for assistance, said the spokesman.

He added: “We assure you that we are taking this incident seriously and extend our appreciation to all our customers for your patience and understanding.”

Citibank did not respond to queries from The Straits Times about what caused the disruption.

Issues with the services of both banks began to surface on Saturday afternoon.

The Downdetector website, which tracks service disruptions, had 3,800 people reporting issues with DBS’ services at about 4.10pm, and 279 complaints about Citibank’s services at about 4.40pm.

In a Facebook post at about 6.10pm on Saturday, DBS said its investigations showed that the service disruption was caused by an issue at a data centre, which is also used by other organisations.

Netizens complained on the HardwareZone forum and commented on the DBS/POSB post on Facebook about being unable to access the bank’s app and website or use their cards to make payments in stores.

DBS customers were also reportedly unable to use the bank’s ATMs in Toa Payoh, Bishan and Sengkang.

On Saturday evening, US data centre operator Equinix told The Straits Times that it was aware that a technical issue at one of its data centres impacted some customers’ operations, including DBS, and it is investigating.

In an update on Sunday morning, an Equinix spokesman said the technical issue that occurred on Saturday raised the temperature in the data centre, which impacted some customers’ operations.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation into this event to identify ways we can better meet our customers’ needs,” said the spokesman. “We will further communicate with our customers as more detail becomes available.” THE STRAITS TIMES

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