Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Chairman Gan Kim Yong on DBS & POSB Digital Banking Services Disruption on 19th March 2026: 1) DBS Service Disruption Lasted for 1 Hour 16 Minutes (19/3/26) Affecting Viewing Deposit Balances & Some Disruptions to Payments via Digital Channels, 2) Disruption Caused by Incorrect Step When Performing System Change, 3) Banks Limited to 4 Hours Unscheduled Downtime for Critical Systems Over 12-Month Period
9th April 2026 | Hong Kong
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Chairman Gan Kim Yong on DBS & POSB Digital Banking Services Disruption on 19th March 2026 – 1) DBS service disruption lasted for 1 hour 16 minutes (19/3/26) from 12.03 pm to 1.19 pm, affecting viewing deposit balances & some disruptions to payments via digital channels, 2) Disruption was caused by incorrect step when performing system change, 3) Banks are limited to 4 hours unscheduled downtime for critical systems over 12-month period. See below for more info:
“ Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Chairman Gan Kim Yong on DBS & POSB Digital Banking Services Disruption on 19th March 2026: 1) DBS Service Disruption Lasted for 1 Hour 16 Minutes (19/3/26) Affecting Viewing Deposit Balances & Some Disruptions to Payments via Digital Channels, 2) Disruption Caused by Incorrect Step When Performing System Change, 3) Banks Limited to 4 Hours Unscheduled Downtime for Critical Systems Over 12-Month Period “
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Written reply to Parliamentary Question on findings about DBS and POSB digital banking services disruption
Date: For Parliament Sitting on 8 April 2026
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Question
Mr Alex Yeo: To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in respect of the DBS and POSB digital banking services disruption on 19 March 2026 (a) whether the root cause of the disruption has been identified; (b) whether it is similar to previous incidents and how it is being addressed; and (c) how will MAS take further steps to ensure that banks strengthen the resilience and reliability of their digital banking services.
Answer by Mr Gan Kim Yong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry, and Chairman of MAS:
1. MAS has set a clear expectation for banks to limit the unscheduled downtime for critical systems to four hours for any rolling period of 12 months. This expectation holds banks to high standards of system resiliency while recognising that operational disruptions can sometimes happen due to the complexity of systems. When there is a system outage, banks are expected to recover services swiftly and safely.
2. DBS Bank encountered a system issue and suffered a service disruption lasting about one hour from 12.03 pm to 1.19 pm on 19 March 2026. The disruption prevented customers from viewing their deposit balances and some customers from making payments through digital channels. ATMs, credit cards and NETS debit cards continued to be accessible. DBS Bank was also able to recover its systems after one hour and restore all services to customers.
3. Investigations reveal that the disruption was caused by an erroneous step when performing a system change. MAS will follow-up with DBS Bank to strengthen their change management process.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Chairman Gan Kim Yong on DBS & POSB Digital Banking Services Disruption on 19th March 2026: 1) DBS Service Disruption Lasted for 1 Hour 16 Minutes (19/3/26) Affecting Viewing Deposit Balances & Some Disruptions to Payments via Digital Channels, 2) Disruption Caused by Incorrect Step When Performing System Change, 3) Banks Limited to 4 Hours Unscheduled Downtime for Critical Systems Over 12-Month Period
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