Singapore DBS’s digital services hit days after MAS ban ends

The disruptions came two days after Singapore’s financial regulator announced an end to the six-month ban on non-essential activities it had imposed on the country’s biggest bank. — Reuters

Singapore’s DBS Bank Ltd reported disruptions to its Internet banking and payment services on May 2, days after a six-month action by the central bank over similar glitches ended.

“We are aware that our customers are experiencing issues with DBS/POSB digibank Online and Mobile, DBS PayLah!,” the bank said in a statement on Facebook on May 2. “We have identified the issue and have activated measures to recover the services.”

The disruptions came two days after Singapore’s financial regulator announced an end to the six-month ban on non-essential activities it had imposed on the country’s biggest bank.

While the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed penalties on DBS including higher capital requirements totaling S$1.6bil (RM5.60bil) for similar service disruptions since 2022, regulator’s action last year including the ban was the most stringent to-date.

DBS separately slashed chief executive officer Piyush Gupta’s compensation by S$4.1mil (RM14.35mil) in 2023 following the outages.

The MAS had lifted the ban this week, citing improvements and progress to overcome shortcomings. Earlier Thursday, the lender delivered better-than-expected results thanks to strong lending and wealth fees, sending its shares up by 1.9% at close. That lifted DBS’s market capitalisation to S$101bil (RM353.62bil), making it the first Singapore-listed company to cross that threshold.

Complaints about the latest service disruption surged from about 5.40pm local time on the Downdetector website, which tracks online outages.

DBS said customers can continue to use their credit and debit cards to make payments, while urging wealth clients to contact their relationship managers to place trades. –Bloomberg