By 
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued an order for DBS and Citibank to conduct a detailed investigation into the reasons behind the extended system outage that occurred earlier this month, disrupting online services and payments.
Between the afternoon of October 14 and the following morning, customers of DBS and Citibank experienced difficulties accessing apps, online banking, and payment services, including PayLah! and PayNow. Some ATMs were also non-operational at certain locations.
This outage was triggered by issues arising during a planned upgrade at a data center due to complications with the center’s cooling system, as reported by the provider Equinix.
Both banks initiated the use of their backup data centers, but the systems were not fully restored within the four-hour timeframe mandated by the regulatory authority.
MAS clarifies that while it does not have direct oversight over data centers, it does expect financial institutions to establish contractual agreements with providers that encompass the system availability requirements set forth by MAS.
The regulator has instructed the banks to conduct a comprehensive investigation to determine the causes of their inability to restore services within the four-hour window. It has also indicated that it will take “appropriate supervisory actions once all the necessary information is gathered.”
In May, Singapore’s central bank imposed additional capital requirements on DBS, following extensive outages in March and subsequent disruptions to its digital banking and ATM services two months later.
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