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MAS: DBS’ Service Disruption ‘Unacceptable’, Bank Fell Short of Expectations

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that the disruption of DBS’ digital services yesterday is unacceptable especially since the bank experienced a similar incident in November 2021.

MAS added that it takes “seriously the reliability of banks’ critical IT system” and the regulator warned that appropriate supervisory action will be taken following an investigation into the incident.

DBS had notified MAS yesterday morning that its customers were experiencing difficulties logging in to its digital banking services. According to DBS’ Facebook post, services were only restored at 5.45 pm after being unavailable the whole day.

Netizens had flooded DBS’ social media channel asking for updates yesterday while slamming the bank for the prolonged disruption.

DBS experience a similar incident in November 2021 when it experienced 39 hours of disruption due to a malfunction of the bank’s access control servers.

Following that incident, MAS had imposed an additional capital requirement of S$930 million on DBS in February 2022.

MAS said in a statement,

“Today’s 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 has instructed DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to establish the root cause of the disruption and submit its investigation findings to MAS. MAS will take the commensurate supervisory actions after gathering the necessary facts.”