DBS and Citibank both faced technical issues in recovering their systems despite having activated their IT disaster recovery and business continuity plans, Tan said. Specific issues that led to the delays didn’t surface during their annual tests, the minister said.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore last week banned DBS from buying new business ventures for six months, after it had five banking service outages in the last eight months. The lender was also blocked from paring its local branch and ATM network during that time.
The central bank has also raised the maximum fine amount to $1 million next year from the current $100,000 if financial institutions fail to meet technology risk management requirements.
The government will also study how to further strengthen the security and resilience of data centres, where lapses could result in a significant impact, Tan said.
