Singapore's DBS was hit with a range of disruptions and tech problems that affected clients in the spring, summer and autumn. The country's regulator has also restricted some of the bank's activities for a period while changes are put into place.

DBS has apologised for a set of digital disruptions this year, and vowed to keep branches and facilities open in case its systems fail again. Yesterday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore barred the bank from any acquisitions of new business ventures for six months.

The Singapore-headquartered group said it was rolling out a “comprehensive roadmap” to make its technology more resilient.

If disruptions happen in future, DBS said its steps will speed up the time taken to fix them. The lender said it is also working to ensure that, where possible, customers will have “alternative means to fulfil their banking needs in case a service or channel is temporarily unavailable.”

DBS said it will maintain its network of physical touchpoints, which include branches; self-service banking machines such as ATMs and VTMs (Video Teller Machines); as well as POSB cash points at merchant outlets including Giant, Cold Storage, 7-Eleven and SingPost. 

If need be, branches will be opened on Sundays and public holidays as an alternative service channel, DBS said. 

In its own statement yesterday, MAS said the bank is also required to pause non-essential IT changes for six months. The bank will not be allowed to reduce the size of its branch and ATM networks in Singapore for now.

“The board apologises for the digital banking disruptions. When customers bank with us, they expect to be able to access our banking services conveniently, and at any time of the day,” DBS chairman Peter Seah said in a statement. “With the incidents of the past year, we have failed to live up to these expectations, and have also fallen short of our own standards. As an acknowledgement that the bank could have done better, senior management will be held accountable, and this will be reflected in their compensation.”

After the 29 March incident, when customers faced difficulty accessing the bank’s digital banking services, DBS’s board drew together senior figures to oversee a full review of the disruption. As well as engaging independent experts, DBS also appointed Accenture to carry out a “root cause” probe of the March incident (which was subsequently extended to the 5 May incident). 

The findings of the Accenture review – completed in August – were also corroborated against recent disruptions: the 26 September incident impacting FAST/PayNow transactions, the 14 October data centre incident, as well as the 20 October incident when some customers had intermittent access to DBS PayLah!.

“The bank believes that key gaps and deficiencies have been identified: per Accenture’s review, they fall into four main areas – technology risk governance and oversight, incident management, system resilience and change management,” it said.