DBS and Citi digital banking services down; ATMs affected

SINGAPORE  — DBS Bank's online banking and payment services were down on Saturday (Oct 14), with error messages shown on automated teller machines (ATMs) at several locations.

DBS bank said the service disruption was caused by an issue at a data centre which is also used by various other organisations.

"We are doing our utmost to swing over to our backup data centre, and expect to progressively restore services from 7pm today," DBS said in a Facebook update at about 6.10pm.

In response to CNA's queries, data centre operator Equinix — which partners with DBS — said it is aware of a "technical issue" at one of its data centres that impacted some customers' operations.

"The technical issue has since been resolved and we are in contact with those impacted customers and expressed our sincere apologies," the company said, adding that it is conducting an investigation into the incident.

The outage started at about 3pm on Saturday, with Downdetector, an online platform that provides users with real-time information about the status of various websites and services, showing a spike in reports about DBS and Citibank.

DBS apologised in a Facebook post at about 4.40pm, saying it has reopened all branches — except the ones in Tampines Central, Tampines One and White Sands — while it works to address the issue.

"We seek your patience as we recover our services. Please be assured that our systems are uncompromised, and your (money) and deposits remain safe," added DBS, Singapore's largest bank.

Citibank told CNA that it experienced a "temporary outage" in its banking services and has started progressively restoring services. 

"We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused," it added. 

A Monetary Authority of Singapore spokesman said that it was informed by DBS and Citibank on Saturday that their customers were experiencing difficulties accessing their banking or payment services.

"Preliminary investigations indicate that the service disruptions were caused by an issue at a common data centre that is used by the banks. MAS has been following up closely with the banks, as they work towards a full resumption of their services, and provide timely communications and support to affected customers," said the spokesman. 

Downdetector also showed spikes in reports for WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, among others.

Some people on social media said they face problems using Meta's social media platforms. Users in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and the United Arab Emirates posted on X (formerly Twitter) to say they could not get on WhatsApp.

CNA has contacted Meta for more information.

While other service providers were reported on Downdetector, CNA understands that services for telcos were not disrupted.

UOB said that all of its digital services and ATMs are working as normal.

OCBC told CNA that it was not experiencing any outage. It posted on Facebook on Saturday evening to say that due to service disruptions to DBS, some OCBC customers might not be able to complete their transactions. 

These include the transfer of funds via PayNow to DBS accounts, or any credit card being used on a DBS payment terminal.

Attempts to log in to DBS' digital banking services at about 4.40pm came back with an error message: "We are experiencing heavy traffic to our services. You will be redirected shortly. Alternatively, please log in later."

DBS' PayLah! services were also down.

Dozens of users have commented on DBS' latest Facebook post complaining about the outage.

Melvin Emmanuel Chan wrote: "Can’t pay via DBS credit or debit card…PayNow and NETS are down as well."

Another user said: "Stuck in the middle of a transaction. Been waiting for more than 30 minutes for the app issues to be resolved. What's going on???!!!" 

Hui Chi wrote: "I can't pay (at) the salon after I perm my hair, luckily they knew me well and let me leave. Hope this resolves soon!"

"Dear DBS, I could not even use PayNow, PayLah! and credit card to buy food. Then I decided to go to ATM. But all of the ATM machines were offline. The only solution was to use CDC vouchers to make payment," wrote Faith Lim. 

DBS ATMs have also been affected by the outages. Error messages on the machines read: "This terminal is temporarily offline." 

This is the not first time that DBS has faced disruptions to their online banking and payment services.

After two disruptions in the space of about two months earlier this year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in May imposed on DBS an additional capital requirement. 

In May, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta apologised for the disruptions and said that a special board committee review would be completed "as a matter of utmost priority". CNA