OCBC reprimanded by MAS for system outage

OCBC Bank has been reprimanded by the authorities after it was not able to adequately deal with a single point of failure in its network system that led to a four hour nationwide banking outage on Sept 13.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that it has directed the bank to 'conduct a thorough review' of its network architecture, monitoring system and its support and maintenance personnel.

Mr Lee Boon Ngiap, assistant managing director, banking and insurance at the MAS, said: 'MAS expects financial institutions to be responsible and accountable in managing and controlling technology risks as well as implementing measures to ensure the resilience of their IT systems and infrastructure.

'We will not hesitate to take appropriate supervisory action against any financial institution which fails to meet the standards set out in the MAS Internet banking and technology risk management (IBTRM) guidelines.'