Human error over coding led to 6-hour disruption of DBS banking services in May: SM Tharman
SINGAPORE — A disruption to DBS Bank’s digital banking and ATM services on May 5, 2023 was due to human error in coding the program used for system maintenance, Parliament was told on Wednesday (July 5).
In a statement at the time, DBS had blamed the over six-hour disruption, the second to hit the bank in two months, on "a systems issue". It did not mention human error at that time.
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam provided an update on the issue in response to questions filed by Member of Parliament (MP) for Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Tan Wu Meng.
Dr Tan asked about the cause of the May disruption, and what is being done to strengthen the reliability and resilience of retails banks with significant market share here, especially in relation to digital banking services.
In his response, Mr Tharman, speaking on behalf of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said that DBS' preliminary investigation showed that human error caused a significant reduction in system capacity.
This affected the system’s ability to process internet and mobile banking, electronic payment and ATM transactions, said Mr Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Monetary of Authority Singapore (MAS) chairman.
Mr Tharman added that according to DBS, the cause of the incident was unrelated to the earlier March 2023 disruption, which was caused by inherent software bugs.
He said that DBS convened a special board committee to oversee the root cause investigation and a comprehensive review of the bank’s IT resilience following the March 2023 incident.
Following the May incident, MAS then tasked the committee to extend its review to cover the latest incident and to use “qualified independent third parties” for the review.
“The MAS has stated publicly that it regards this second disruption within a period of two months as unacceptable, and that DBS had fallen short of MAS’ expectation for banks to deliver reliable services to their customers,” Mr Tharman said.
He added that MAS' move to impose additional capital requirements on DBS reflects the seriousness with which MAS views the recent disruptions and the impact that they have had on customers.
“MAS may vary the size of the additional capital requirement imposed on the bank and take other regulatory actions depending on the outcome of ongoing reviews," he said.
“MAS requires all retail banks in Singapore to ensure that their mission critical systems supporting digital banking are resilient. This includes having the ability to recover quickly from any system disruptions,” he said.
Mr Tharman said that banks are subject to regular inspections and off-site reviews by MAS to ensure their adherence to regulatory requirements and expectations.
More details on the disruptions will be provided by the bank publicly when the review is completed, he added.
MAS Directs DBS to Assess Staff and Tech Supporting Its Digital Banking Services
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has directed DBS to conduct an assessment of the staff, processes, and technology supporting its digital banking services following its prolonged disruption on 29 March 2023.
Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS Tharman Shanmugaratnam was asked in a parliamentary question on how the regulator has been working with the bank to identify and remedy its problems.
DBS has experienced two major disruptions in the past 16 months with the first in November 2021 and has since undertaken measures to mitigate the identified gaps.
The bank has focused on enhancing its access control architecture, by building in more redundancy, monitoring its key system components more closely and improving its system restoration processes.
Tharman added that DBS has also committed to strengthening its in-house technical expertise to facilitate faster response to system issues.
DBS was to complete the validation of these remediation actions and report its progress to MAS by July 2023.
Following the second disruption last month, DBS went on to establish a Special Independent Board Committee to oversee the investigation by qualified independent experts.
While the cause of the March 2023 incident appears to be software bugs that are unrelated to the previous disruption, the committee is overseeing a thorough investigation to determine if there are common underlying weaknesses that prevented a prompt recovery in both incidents.
MAS will take the necessary supervisory actions against DBS following the completion of the independent review.
“Given the growing scale and complexity of banks’ IT systems, we can nevertheless expect brief disruptions from time to time. When these disruptions do occur, banks must quickly identify the problem, swiftly restore access to their services, and communicate effectively, clearly and transparently to affected customers. MAS will continue to work closely with the industry to ensure the resilience of banks’ IT infrastructure to maintain stability and trust in the banking system.”
Since 2018, the seven domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) in Singapore have reported a total of 17 disruptions to their digital banking services that lasted more than one hour. The seven D-SIBs are DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered, Citibank, HSBC and Maybank.
The root causes of these service disruptions are varied, ranging from lapses in managing system upgrades to software bugs and misconfigurations, in digital banking systems as well as back-end systems and components.
The recent online service outage caused an uproar in Singapore, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) saying that the disruption was “unacceptable”. The MAS will also be taking actions against DBS after investigation is completed. In light of this mess, what will the implication be for DBS Group Holdings share price (SGX: D05) in the coming months?
For DBS Group Holdings, it is a case of lightning strikes thrice as the 29 March 2023 service outage was actually the third time for DBS. The previous incidents took place in November 2021 and July 2010. For the 2021 incident, the MAS has imposed an extra capital requirement of $930 million on DBS. This was four times higher than the amount imposed on the bank for the 2010 incident. Evidently, the extra capital requirements had not been effective as the latest outage took place just 16 months from the 2021 incident.
Will the MAS impose a significant civil penalty on DBS? It remains to be seen as analysts had claimed that the MAS is likely to impose another round of extra capital requirement on DBS, albeit at a much higher amount than the 2021 version. However, given that DBS has not learned the lesson from the previous outage saga, it may be possible that MAS may impose a heavy civil penalty to jolt DBS into taking effective remedies. In view of this, DBS Group Holdings share price could be bearish in the coming months.
Already, DBS Group Holdings share price (SGX: D05) started to cave in after short selling volume surged to a high of 2.48 million shares on 30 March 2023. Typically, the short selling volume ranges from 300,000 to 500,000. The last time that short selling volume on DBS crossed the 1 million mark was on 15 February 2023.
On that day, short selling against DBS reached 1.16 million following CEO Piyush Gupta’s revelation of DBS loan exposure of $1.3 billion to beleaguered Adani Group, which has been targeted by short seller Hindenburg Research. The Adani Group is alleged by Hindenburg Research for stock manipulation.
Consequently, DBS Group Holdings share price fell from $36 on 10 February 2023 to $34.70 on 15 February 2023.
To complicate matters, the recent DBS outage took place at a time when investors are still in jitters over the bank runs in US. Three large US banks had failed – Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate and Signature Bank. The collapses ignited global fear of contagion in the financial sector, leading to another massive financial crisis not seen since 2008. The forced merger of Credit Suisse and UBS and the panic selloff of Deutsche Bank also mean that all is not well at Europe too.
Note that this is an opinion article and not meant to be a financial advice. Please do your due diligence or engage financial advisors before investing in the stock market. Furthermore, I am not vested and have never invested in DBS Group Holdings share before. Whether DBS Group Holdings share price (SGX: 05) will surge or collapse has no impact on me. Thus, this article is not meant to induce readers to make any form of investment decisions.
Human error over coding led to 6-hour disruption of DBS banking services in May: SM Tharman
SINGAPORE — A disruption to DBS Bank’s digital banking and ATM services on May 5, 2023 was due to human error in coding the program used for system maintenance, Parliament was told on Wednesday (July 5).
In a statement at the time, DBS had blamed the over six-hour disruption, the second to hit the bank in two months, on "a systems issue". It did not mention human error at that time.
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam provided an update on the issue in response to questions filed by Member of Parliament (MP) for Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Tan Wu Meng.
Dr Tan asked about the cause of the May disruption, and what is being done to strengthen the reliability and resilience of retails banks with significant market share here, especially in relation to digital banking services.
In his response, Mr Tharman, speaking on behalf of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said that DBS' preliminary investigation showed that human error caused a significant reduction in system capacity.
This affected the system’s ability to process internet and mobile banking, electronic payment and ATM transactions, said Mr Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Monetary of Authority Singapore (MAS) chairman.
Mr Tharman added that according to DBS, the cause of the incident was unrelated to the earlier March 2023 disruption, which was caused by inherent software bugs.
He said that DBS convened a special board committee to oversee the root cause investigation and a comprehensive review of the bank’s IT resilience following the March 2023 incident.
Following the May incident, MAS then tasked the committee to extend its review to cover the latest incident and to use “qualified independent third parties” for the review.
“The MAS has stated publicly that it regards this second disruption within a period of two months as unacceptable, and that DBS had fallen short of MAS’ expectation for banks to deliver reliable services to their customers,” Mr Tharman said.
He added that MAS' move to impose additional capital requirements on DBS reflects the seriousness with which MAS views the recent disruptions and the impact that they have had on customers.
“MAS may vary the size of the additional capital requirement imposed on the bank and take other regulatory actions depending on the outcome of ongoing reviews," he said.
“MAS requires all retail banks in Singapore to ensure that their mission critical systems supporting digital banking are resilient. This includes having the ability to recover quickly from any system disruptions,” he said.
Mr Tharman said that banks are subject to regular inspections and off-site reviews by MAS to ensure their adherence to regulatory requirements and expectations.
More details on the disruptions will be provided by the bank publicly when the review is completed, he added.
TODAY has sought comment from DBS.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/human-error-dbs-banking-disruption-tharman-2205506
MAS Directs DBS to Assess Staff and Tech Supporting Its Digital Banking Services
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has directed DBS to conduct an assessment of the staff, processes, and technology supporting its digital banking services following its prolonged disruption on 29 March 2023.
Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS Tharman Shanmugaratnam was asked in a parliamentary question on how the regulator has been working with the bank to identify and remedy its problems.
DBS has experienced two major disruptions in the past 16 months with the first in November 2021 and has since undertaken measures to mitigate the identified gaps.
The bank has focused on enhancing its access control architecture, by building in more redundancy, monitoring its key system components more closely and improving its system restoration processes.
Tharman added that DBS has also committed to strengthening its in-house technical expertise to facilitate faster response to system issues.
DBS was to complete the validation of these remediation actions and report its progress to MAS by July 2023.
Following the second disruption last month, DBS went on to establish a Special Independent Board Committee to oversee the investigation by qualified independent experts.
While the cause of the March 2023 incident appears to be software bugs that are unrelated to the previous disruption, the committee is overseeing a thorough investigation to determine if there are common underlying weaknesses that prevented a prompt recovery in both incidents.
MAS will take the necessary supervisory actions against DBS following the completion of the independent review.
Since 2018, the seven domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) in Singapore have reported a total of 17 disruptions to their digital banking services that lasted more than one hour. The seven D-SIBs are DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered, Citibank, HSBC and Maybank.
The root causes of these service disruptions are varied, ranging from lapses in managing system upgrades to software bugs and misconfigurations, in digital banking systems as well as back-end systems and components.
https://fintechnews.sg/71799/fintech/mas-directs-dbs-to-assess-staff-and-tech-supporting-its-digital-banking-services/
Hmmm
DBS kenna suan siao by a ST cartoonist🤣
DBS Group Holdings share price in trouble
The recent online service outage caused an uproar in Singapore, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) saying that the disruption was “unacceptable”. The MAS will also be taking actions against DBS after investigation is completed. In light of this mess, what will the implication be for DBS Group Holdings share price (SGX: D05) in the coming months?
For DBS Group Holdings, it is a case of lightning strikes thrice as the 29 March 2023 service outage was actually the third time for DBS. The previous incidents took place in November 2021 and July 2010. For the 2021 incident, the MAS has imposed an extra capital requirement of $930 million on DBS. This was four times higher than the amount imposed on the bank for the 2010 incident. Evidently, the extra capital requirements had not been effective as the latest outage took place just 16 months from the 2021 incident.
Will the MAS impose a significant civil penalty on DBS? It remains to be seen as analysts had claimed that the MAS is likely to impose another round of extra capital requirement on DBS, albeit at a much higher amount than the 2021 version. However, given that DBS has not learned the lesson from the previous outage saga, it may be possible that MAS may impose a heavy civil penalty to jolt DBS into taking effective remedies. In view of this, DBS Group Holdings share price could be bearish in the coming months.
Already, DBS Group Holdings share price (SGX: D05) started to cave in after short selling volume surged to a high of 2.48 million shares on 30 March 2023. Typically, the short selling volume ranges from 300,000 to 500,000. The last time that short selling volume on DBS crossed the 1 million mark was on 15 February 2023.
On that day, short selling against DBS reached 1.16 million following CEO Piyush Gupta’s revelation of DBS loan exposure of $1.3 billion to beleaguered Adani Group, which has been targeted by short seller Hindenburg Research. The Adani Group is alleged by Hindenburg Research for stock manipulation.
Consequently, DBS Group Holdings share price fell from $36 on 10 February 2023 to $34.70 on 15 February 2023.
To complicate matters, the recent DBS outage took place at a time when investors are still in jitters over the bank runs in US. Three large US banks had failed – Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate and Signature Bank. The collapses ignited global fear of contagion in the financial sector, leading to another massive financial crisis not seen since 2008. The forced merger of Credit Suisse and UBS and the panic selloff of Deutsche Bank also mean that all is not well at Europe too.
Note that this is an opinion article and not meant to be a financial advice. Please do your due diligence or engage financial advisors before investing in the stock market. Furthermore, I am not vested and have never invested in DBS Group Holdings share before. Whether DBS Group Holdings share price (SGX: 05) will surge or collapse has no impact on me. Thus, this article is not meant to induce readers to make any form of investment decisions.
https://sgwealthbuilder.com/2023/04/01/dbs-group-holdings-share-price-in-trouble/
It's going to be all but just another wayang, we Sinkies already know this from past instances.
A mere slap on the back for a job not so "well done" sounds about right for kaki lang heh
😡😡😡