The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) fiercely criticizes the recent disruption of DBS’s online banking services as “intolerable” and vows to take “supervisory actions.”
DBS “Falls Woefully Short of MAS’ Expectations” Singapore’s central bank and financial regulatory authority sternly stated on Mar. 29 that it places great importance on the reliability of banks’ critical IT systems, and that DBS has woefully fallen short of MAS’s expectations to ensure the availability of its systems at a high level and to recover its IT systems expeditiously.
This disruption comes just a year after a similar incident in November 2021, MAS pointedly noted.
“MAS has been closely monitoring DBS to ensure a swift recovery of its digital services and timely communications to customers regarding the disruption,” MAS said.
MAS Promises Supervisory Actions After DBS Investigation MAS remarked that the bank has since resumed normal digital banking services and is keeping a watchful eye on the situation.
Nonetheless, MAS has instructed DBS to conduct a comprehensive investigation to ascertain the root cause of the disruption and submit its findings to the regulator.
MAS asserted it “will take commensurate supervisory actions after gathering the necessary facts.”
Background DBS Bank’s online banking services faced disruptions starting from Wednesday (Mar. 29) morning.
Numerous customers using DBS and POSB online banking apps, as well as PayLah! users, were unable to access the services.
Users were alerted that the bank was “experiencing heavy traffic” to its services and were advised to log in later.
DBS provided an update on Facebook at 12:49 pm stating that access to digital services was “intermittent,” and later announced that their digital services had returned to normal as of 5:45 pm.
“We Deeply Regret the Inconvenience Caused”: DBS In a statement on Mar. 29, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta expressed the bank’s disappointment that many of their customers were unable to access DBS digital banking services.
He added, “We hold ourselves to higher standards, and it is our utmost priority to scrutinize the events of today. We acknowledge the gravity of the situation, appreciate our customers’ understanding, and deeply regret the inconvenience caused.”
