Singapore central bank penalizes DBS for service outages

The DBS Bank logo is seen on a building in the Marina Bay Financial Centre in Singapore on June 19, 2020. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

The DBS Bank logo is seen on a building in the Marina Bay Financial Centre in Singapore on June 19, 2020. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore's central bank banned DBS bank from making acquisitions for six months on Wednesday while it strengthened its digital banking services after a series of disruptions.
DBS, the city-state's largest bank, must also suspend non-essential IT changes during the period, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement.
"DBS must put in place immediate measures to ensure service reliability while it continues to invest in the longer-term efforts to bolster its operational resilience," said Ho Hern Shin, the regulatory body's deputy managing director of financial supervision.
The central bank had already imposed an additional capital requirement on the lender after two disruptions in March and May.
DBS has since experienced three further disruptions to its banking services, including an outage affecting digital services and ATMs on Oct 14 that lasted more than 12 hours.
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The bank's board and management apologized for the disruptions on Wednesday, saying a "comprehensive roadmap to improve technology resiliency" would be rolled out.
"As an acknowledgment that the bank could have done better, senior management will be held accountable, and this will be reflected in their compensation," DBS Chairman Peter Seah said in a statement.