Commonwealth Bank’s (CBA) systems started to recover at 1am AEDT on Friday after systems crashed around midday on Thursday due to an “internal system issue” that related to an upgrade.
The bank said there may still be some payment delays but all payments into and out of customer accounts would be properly processed. It said branches would be open today, and ATMs and EFTPOS were now operating as normal.
CBA has put on additional staff at its call centres to assist customers with any outstanding issues.
The outage was first announced to customers at 12.15pm on Thursday, with CBA saying its services were “experiencing an issue”, which resulted in some temporary branch closures and stopped CommBank app and NetBank payments working.
The bank said on Twitter that afternoon that it was likely to be “some hours” before affected services would be restored, but that all accounts were safe.
We continue to experience a issue with our network this afternoon that's affecting banking services. We're very sorry for the inconvenience and are working to fix it, it's likely to be some hours before services are restored. All accounts are safe https://t.co/mqJe94qXDN
— CommBank (@CommBank) October 17, 2019
According to CBA, the following services were “affected”:
- Some debit card payments may be impacted
- BPAY services including PAY-ID payments not available
- Cardless Cash and Cardless Deposits not available
- Some in-branch services
- Some call centre services
- CommBiz log-on and some CommBiz payments
The following services were still available during the outage:
- ATM and EFTPOS merchant services were working
- Debit and credit cards were working
The bank said it was experiencing high levels of call volumes at its call centres, some of which were impacted by the technical issue, so there would likely be longer-than-usual wait times as a result.
A horde of CBA customers went on Twitter, looking for answers about when their banking services would be working again, with some claiming they were even left unable to pay for their fuel at the petrol bowser.
Well today is payday what are the chances I won't get a cent and be told "sorry for the inconvenience" of starving and being stuck in a car without enough fuel to get home If I have to sleep on my car hungry tonight then its bye bye commbank
— Mitch (@Mitch33256095) October 17, 2019
When I attempted to transfer money to my own debit card-it failed both in the netbank app & netbank via web browser
The card doesn't have sufficient funds & yet the person who processed the medical fee using my card number says transaction went through
Will I incur a penalty?
— ⏳The Solitary Reaper🕉🍀 (@YonSolitary) October 17, 2019
So over it I need to access my money and I can not. Need food can not buy it as I can not access the funds in my account. Hope you are going to put some funds in our accounts of your customers over this probably not
— Robert Paull (@delta_paull) October 17, 2019
@CommBank Urgently need to get money out and I am unable to. No cash, no nothing. Now I’m starving. Disappointed on such a humid day 😰Surely we deserve more than an apology. Time spent on this inconvenience is time I cannot get back. Robbing me of the most valuable currency ⏰
— Philip Juan Sillah Jr. (@JuanSillah) October 17, 2019
This article was updated with new information as changes came through.
Image source: TK Kurikawa (Shutterstock)
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