Images of the DBS Internet banking login page on Mar 29, 2023.
SINGAPORE: Digital services of Singapore's largest bank came back online on Wednesday evening (Mar 29) after an outage lasting most of the day.
DBS customers had been unable to log in to online banking platforms such as the PayLah! mobile wallet, with reports of service outages beginning to surge at about 8.30am, according to the website Downdetector.
In a 7.30pm update, the bank said that as of 5.45pm, its digital services - digibank Mobile and Online, PayLah! and mTrading - had returned to normal.
OPENING HOURS EXTENDED
At 4.50pm, with services still unavailable, DBS had announced a two-hour extension for the opening hours at all DBS and POSB branches, as well as Treasures Centres.
"We are doing our best to resolve the situation," DBS said in a Facebook post, apologising for the inconvenience.
"Customers can also continue to use their DBS/POSB cards for transactions. Please be assured that your deposits and monies are safe and secure."
"We are closely monitoring the situation. We appreciate your patience and are sorry for the inconvenience caused," said DBS.
INTERMITTENT ACCESS
The bank said in an earlier update that access to digital services such as Vickers mTrading and PayLah! was intermittent and customers might experience "some slowness" during login.Â
When CNA tried to access the bank's online banking services at about 9am, one-time passwords (OTPs) were also not received on mobile phones.
DBS customers took to the bank's Facebook page to voice their frustrations, with some users saying they needed to use the app urgently.
"Please restore it ASAP," said Facebook user Karen Boo. "How would you feel if you are the customer who needs to use the service urgently? This is so frustrating!" she said.
Another user William Tan said: "The last time your system had a major breakdown which caused a lot of problems and inconvenience for users."
Others also said that they did not receive OTPs. One user said they thought they "got hacked" until they read the comments online.
In reply to a Facebook comment from a user who said she needed money to pay her hospital bills, the bank said customers can still use their cards to withdraw money from ATMs.
DISRUPTION "UNACCEPTABLE": MAS
The outage was DBS' second in 16 months: The previous incident in November 2021 lasted two days and was deemed a "serious disruption" by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
On Wednesday evening, the regulator issued a strongly-worded statement, calling the latest outage "unacceptable".
It said the bank had "fallen short" of expectations.
MAS instructed the bank to conduct a thorough investigation, following which MAS would take "commensurate supervisory actions".
The 2021 disruption resulted in MAS imposing additional capital requirements on DBS, which had to apply a multiplier of 1.5 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk - translating to S$930 million in additional regulatory capital.
