Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has instructed both CIMB and Maybank to explain the recent outage in banking services by both banks which occurred over the past week and affected various core services including ATMs and payment via credit and debit cards.

Given that these are the two biggest banks in Malaysia, BNM stated that it took these outages seriously as it caused disruptions and inconvenience to customers. The central bank has instructed both CIMB and Maybank to provide “appropriate communication” to its customers, including attending to complaints and inquiries resulting from the outage as well as providing updates on affected services.

In addition, BNM has also required both banks to provide a full explanation of the root cause leading to the incidents, and provide any corrective and preventive measures undertaken to avoid a recurrence. The central bank’s statement also stated that it expects all banking institutions in Malaysia to maintain high availability of banking services at all times, and will not hesitate to take further supervisory actions on banks that do not meet its regulatory and supervisory expectations.

Both CIMB and Maybank have since issued their own statements on their respective outages. CIMB, which suffered a wider service outage across CIMB Clicks, CIMB OCTO, FPX, MyDebit and Credit transactions and Self-Service Terminals, and a second outage on CIMB Clicks and CIMB Octo the next day, shared the following statement:

Kuala Lumpur – CIMB Bank (“The Bank”) confirmed that yesterday 8 April 2024 it faced intermittent service disruptions between 2.45pm till 5.00pm which impacted CIMB Clicks, CIMB OCTO, FPX, MyDebit and Credit transactions and Self-Service Terminals. Subsequently, all services were restored by 5.00p.m. on the same day.

Regrettably, a similar service interruption resurfaced early this morning but have been addressed with CIMB Clicks and CIMB OCTO already available by 10.00 am and with all services restored by early afternoon.

CIMB Bank would like to reassure customers that its core banking system and customer data remain secure and intact, and is committed to strengthening its platforms’ resiliency and uptime.

The Bank truly apologise to customers for the inconvenience as Malaysians prepare to celebrate the festive season and thank CIMB customers’ for their patience and understanding.

Meanwhile, Maybank’s service outage affected its online banking, ATM, and debit cards services. It shared the following statement:

On 5th April 2024 at around 9.20pm, Maybank experienced a disruption affecting our debit cards, online banking and ATM service. The issue temporarily prevented customers from making online payments as well as at retail outlets.

Immediately upon becoming aware of the issue, our technical team worked diligently to resolve the issue and restored services as quickly as possible. The impacted services were gradually normalised and fully recovered at 11.34pm. All customer transactions were attended to and completed.

We apologise for any inconvenience our customers faced due to this unexpected downtime and would like to thank them for their patience and understanding. We would also like to update that currently all services and apps are operating as per normal.

Should customers require any assistance, they may reach out to our Customer Care via PM (Private Message) on social media or call 1-300-88-6688.

Maybank understands that in today’s digital age, the reliability and security of electronic payment systems is of paramount importance. We would like to assure our customers and stakeholders of our unwavering commitment to upholding the highest standards of customer experience and satisfaction.

In closing, Maybank would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers celebrating “Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri” and to all safe journeys over the festive holidays.

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While it is not uncommon in Malaysia that banks have intermittent service disruptions, the recent outages occurred just before the Hari Raya celebrations in the country, affecting customers preparing for the upcoming festivities.

• TAGS:
• Bank Negara Malaysia
• BNM
• CIMB
• Maybank