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DBS CEO apologises to customers for digital banking disruption

03.12.2021

SINGAPORE: DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta on Friday apologised to customers for the two-day disruption to digital banking services last week, saying that the bank is reviewing its processes.

"I just want to take the opportunity to say sorry," Gupta said when asked about the disruption at the virtual Reuters Next conference.

Our customers have a right to expect more from us and to share their frustration and pain. Over two days last week, many DBS and POSB customers reported that they were unable to access online banking services. The disruption began on Tuesday morning and recurred on Wednesday after DBS said services had been restored.

The bank, the largest lender in Southeast Asia, said the disruption was caused by an issue with its access control servers On Friday. Mr Gupta reiterated that there was no cyberattack. He described DBS' access control server as the front door to banking services.

When you want to come in through your mobile bank, that's the first page you're landing at and your identity, your authentication and your passwords are controlled over there, he said.

Only a minority of customers were allowed to access banking services because of a degradation in the access control server, according to Mr Gupta.

He said everything behind the front door was safe, and that payment and trading services continued to work during the disruption.

If you went to any of our branches or called us on the phone, we could do everything. It was the front door access that got degraded. Gupta, who has been at the helm of DBS Group since 2009, said the bank is conducting a full review of the end-to- end processes to identify how it can do better.

As customers get more and more digital and you get more advanced, the bar on 99.999 per cent expected uptime will continue to be raised higher, he said in an interview with Reuters senior financial correspondent Anshuman Daga.

It is incumbent on all of us to be able to build resiliency and have the capacity to serve and operate at a very high bar. The Monetary Authority of Singapore will consider appropriate supervisory measures after a thorough investigation into the disruption by DBS.