DBS Bank Denies Myanmar Bond Link to Online Services Outage

DBS Bank, Southeast Asia’s largest lender, said on Thursday its online services were returning to normal after two days of outages, while the city-state’s regulator said it would demand answers.

The Singapore-based bank said a glitch left many customers unable to log into their accounts. Disruptions began on Tuesday morning, DBS said.

DBS denied speculation in Myanmar that the disruptions were somehow connected to the sale of treasury bonds there.

“There have been rumours that DBS’s digibanking service disruption is linked to the sale of treasury bonds by Myanmar’s National Unity Government,” the bank wrote on Twitter. “There is no truth to this. DBS has not sold any such bonds.”

Update 3:30PM, 24 Nov
There have been rumours that DBS’ digibanking service disruption is linked to the sale of treasury bonds by Myanmar’s National Unity Government. There is no truth to this. DBS has not sold any such bonds.

— DBS Bank (@dbsbank) November 24, 2021

Myanmar media had noted the timing, suggesting the events were linked. “After a lot of purchases for the NUG bonds in Singapore on Monday evening, online banking services of POSB and DBS, Singapore-based banks, got stuck,” the pro-democracy Mizzima outlet reported.

The city-state’s banking regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, called on DBS to investigate what was an admittedly rare, although serious, glitch in the country’s modern banking system.

MAS Cracks The Whip

“This is a serious disruption and MAS expects DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the root causes and implement the necessary remedial measures,” Marcus Lim, MAS assistant managing director for banking and insurance, said.

Shee Tse Koon, DBS Singapore country head, told customers in a video address that the bank had been working “around the clock” to restore services.

However, the problems returned on Wednesday. “The same problem recurred and while the situation is less severe than yesterday, we know that many of you are still unable to get access,” Shee said.

Services were expected to return on Thursday, DBS said.