KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) may impose penalties for violations of regulatory provisions under its supervision, following recent online banking service outages.
Deputy finance minister Lim Hui Ying said the appropriate follow-up action, as provided for under the Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA) and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (IFSA), would depend on assessments by the affected institutions of the disruption’s root cause and impact.
“BNM has taken immediate action to instruct the banking institutions involved to determine the root cause of the disruptions and subsequently set appropriate corrective and preventive measures.
“The banks have been instructed to communicate with the affected customers, including by responding immediately to any complaints and inquiries caused by the disruptions,” she said during Question Time at the Dewan Rakyat today.
Lim was replying to a question by Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) about the government’s view on frequent online service outages by banking institutions and how prepared it is to impose penalties.
She said BNM was closely monitoring the situation and would ensure that the banking institutions involved restore normal banking services as soon as possible.
Under the FSA and IFSA, BNM has the authority to take supervisory and enforcement action against financial institutions found to be non-compliant with any provision of the relevant policy document.
This includes the failure to ensure that unplanned downtime experienced by critical systems, affecting service access to customers, does not exceed the maximum tolerable period.
