Behind the human error that crashed NETS

"AN inadvertent human error during system maintenance" has been blamed for the nation-wide crash of the NETS system on Feb 2.

The widespread disruption that afternoon affected millions of users of the 30-year-old cashless payment scheme. Many angry customers took to social media to vent their frustration at the unavailability of the NETS services, including those for point-of-sales transactions and top-up services.

NETS, a national debit scheme owned by DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank, enables customers with accounts in these banks and other banks (like Standard Chartered, HSBC and Maybank) to use their ATM cards to make payments.