SINGAPORE — Disruptions to DBS Bank and Citibank banking and payment services on Saturday (Oct 14) have prompted a variety of reactions from netizens.
The viral video, posted on Saturday, had garnered more than 176,100 views, 6,969 likes, and 331 comments as of Monday, with many offering advice on how to avoid such situations in the future.
One commenter wrote: “The moral of this episode is to keep some cash at home at all times!”
Another shared a past experience, writing: “Always get a second bank account just in case of these things. The last time this happened, I created a StanChart account. Never had any such problems.”
Beyond initial reactions, however, it seems that more serious discussions in several follow-up Reddit posts have also emerged, questioning the reliability of some of the top banks in Singapore.
Such posts were likely spurred on by similar disruptions in DBS’ services in March and May that prompted the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to impose additional capital requirements on the bank.
In one post providing an update on the situation on Saturday, users were quick to point out the perceived lack of quick-response and contingency solutions by DBS.
One user wrote: “Honestly scary to think that a major bank doesn’t have more redundancy in place as a critical service/infrastructure. Also, the data centre has no redundancy, meh? Or really outage so rabak (Malay term for ‘bad’), all redundancy also fail?”
Another user also expressed shock at the lack of backup plans, writing: “I am shocked that a major bank like DBS has a single point of failure. Pro tip: If (the) backup data centre isn’t up and running almost immediately, you need to get a new HA (High Availability) Architecture.”
Another post from a user looking for alternative banks drew many like-minded individuals who were tired of repeated disruptions.
However, some users offered a more objective point of view, with one writing: “In my opinion, all banks will have some issues here and there.
“I think (the) best would be (to) just (have) at least two modes of payment on stand-by at all times. For instance, keep about S$30-40 in (your) wallet, and also have your bank card with you.”