Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has ordered CIMB and Maybank to deliver a comprehensive account of the root causes behind the recent service outages, which disrupted banking operations and inconvenienced customers.
The regulatory body is taking a strict stance on ensuring that both banks not only address the immediate fallout from these incidents but also implement measures to prevent future disruptions.
Following the service interruptions, both institutions have restored normal operations. BNM has also instructed both banks to properly communicate with its affected customers.
This engagement includes addressing inquiries and complaints promptly, as well as keeping customers informed about the status of services that were impacted.
CIMB reported experiencing intermittent service disruptions on 8 April 2024, between 2:45 PM and 5:00 PM, affecting its online banking platforms CIMB Clicks, CIMB OCTO, as well as FPX, MyDebit, credit transactions, and self-service terminals.
These services were restored by 5:00 PM the same day. However, a similar issue reoccurred the following morning, impacting services early on but was resolved by early afternoon, with all functionalities back online.
CIMB apologised for the inconvenience, especially given the timing ahead of the festive season, and attempted to reassure its customers that its “core banking system and customer data remain secure and intact, and is committed to strengthening its platforms’ resiliency and uptime”.
Meanwhile, Maybank encountered a disruption on 5 April 2024, around 9:20 PM, impacting its debit card services, online banking, and ATMs.
This issue temporarily prevented customers from completing online payments and transactions at retail outlets. According to the bank, all services were normalised and fully operational by 11:34 PM.
The central bank said in a statement,
“BNM expects all banking institutions to maintain high availability of banking services at all times. BNM will not hesitate to take further supervisory actions where the banks have fallen short of our regulatory and supervisory expectations.”
In a parallel move within the region, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had enforced an additional capital requirement on DBS Bank after it experienced two service outages in a span of just over a month.
Featured image: Edited from Wikipedia
