Disruption of DBS’ digital services is unacceptable – MAS

The last digital disruption happened 16 months ago or November 2021.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it takes seriously the reliability of banks’ critical IT systems.

“MAS has been in close contact with DBS to ensure expedited recovery of its digital services and timely communications to customers on the disruption. We note the bank has since resumed normal digital banking services and is monitoring the situation,” MAS said. 

DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s online banking and payment services notified the Singapore central bank that its customers experienced trouble getting into their online banking services.

On a Facebook post published at about 9:20 AM on 28 March, the bank said DBS/POSB digibank Mobile and Online, DBS PayLah! and DBS mTrading services were facing issues.

In lieu of the situation, DBS extended its banking services in all DBS/POSB and Treasures Centres for two additional hours.

“[The recent] disruption of DBS’ digital services is unacceptable, coming a year after a similar incident in November 2021. DBS has fallen short of MAS’ expectations to maintain high system availability and ensure its IT systems are recovered expeditiously,” MAS said.

Moving forward, MAS told DBS to perform a deep investigation to find the main cause of the disruption and submit a findings report to the monetary authority.