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MAS to Take Supervisory Action Against DBS and Citibank After Service Disruptions

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has instructed DBS Bank and Citibank to investigate why they were unable to fully recover their systems within the set timeframe during a recent banking services disruption.

MAS requires all banks to have in place back-up data centres and systems and to test them periodically to ensure that critical systems and services can be restored within 4 hours following an outage.

The disruption, which began on 14 October 2023, was caused by a technical issue with the cooling system at a data centre used by both banks.

However, DBS Bank and Citibank were unable to fully recover their systems within this timeframe. MAS has said that it will take appropriate supervisory actions after gathering the necessary facts.

MAS has also reminded banks and customers that no IT system is infallible and that they should have contingency measures in place in the event of service disruptions caused by IT outages.

“Customers can benefit from having alternative payment providers and carrying some cash as a contingency. During this recent service disruption, many affected customers with alternative payment providers were able to switch to those or to using cash, minimising inconvenience.”