DBS Bank experiences disruption in services; Monetary Authority of Singapore to investigate

SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is collaborating with DBS Bank to investigate the recent disruption to the bank’s PayNow and Fast And Secure Transfers (Fast) services, which impacted a significant number of customers last week.

On Monday, in reply to media inquiries, an MAS spokesman confirmed that DBS had informed them on 26 September about the service interruption affecting numerous users.

Fast, for context, is an electronic system facilitating inter-bank fund transfers.

Although DBS Bank managed to restore services on the same day, the process of reconciliation for the affected transactions and DBS/POSB account remediations was only finalized three days after the incident. Reconciliation ensures that transactions processed have no unauthorized modifications.

The MAS spokesman emphasized the regulator’s expectations, stating, “MAS expects banks to have the ability to recover quickly from any system disruption and to address and resolve the impact to customers swiftly and transparently.”

Furthermore, MAS revealed plans to liaise closely with DBS to comprehend the root cause of the incident and to assess the bank’s management of affected customers and transactions.

26 September wasn’t without challenges for many DBS customers, as they faced delays, among other issues, when using the bank’s PayNow service.

This recent service interruption adds to DBS Bank’s growing list of disruptions this year.

Previously, the bank faced a significant 6½-hour service interruption on 5 May due to human error, and a prolonged 12-hour disruption in March attributed to software bugs.