Paid millions but still screwed up

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Number of major MRT breakdowns doubles even as overall rail reliability remains high​

There were seven major breakdowns in 2022, which is the second-highest in the past five years. ST PHOTO: RYAN CHIONG

Christopher Tan
Senior Transport Correspondent

Mar 21, 2023

SINGAPORE – Serious MRT disruptions, each lasting over 30 minutes, more than doubled in 2022 from 2021 even as the frequency of total delays dipped.
According to rail reliability statistics just released by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the mean kilometres before failure – an engineering measure of reliability – rose from 1.994 million train-km in 2021 to 2.09 million train-km in 2022.
That means there was one disruption of more than five minutes for every 2.09 million km clocked by Singapore’s MRT trains during the year, making the system one of the more dependable in the world.
The best-performing MRT line was the newish Downtown Line, operated by SBS Transit, while the worst-performing one was the North-South Line, operated by SMRT. But even the latter clocked more than 1.6 million train-km before a failure.
The newest Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) operated by SMRT – which had suffered several delays since it opened three years ago – was not tallied.
Separately, there were seven major breakdowns (defined as those lasting more than half an hour) in 2022 – more than double the three in 2021, and is the second-highest figure in the past five years.
This contrasted against the number of major LRT glitches, which halved to just two in 2022.

Singapore University of Social Sciences Associate Professor Walter Theseira, an economist, said it was difficult to gauge reliability from year-on-year statistical changes.
“We do know the system is more than 10 times as reliable as it was in the mid-2010s,” he said. “Whether these gains are being reversed is difficult to tell from just one year of performance, just as it took several years for improvements in rail reliability to become apparent.”
While admitting that a recent spate of major delays across several MRT lines “are of concern for commuters”, he said the glitches were “distributed across the lines and hence do not suggest yet that there are systemic reliability issues... which were the problem plaguing our MRT in the past”.

Prof Theseira added that it was “common for reliability to change over time, since it’s a function of equipment age, maintenance, utilisation, operating tempo”.
“What is important is that since reliability is a choice, expectations are clearly communicated to operators, and operators have the resources to meet those expectations.”

Observers said the number of disruptions in the first quarter of this year has increased. There were five breakdowns on the Thomson-East Coast Line for the year up to early March, three others on the North-South Line and one on the East-West Line during that period.
In a Parliamentary reply to Mr Melvin Yong (Radin Mas) on Monday, Transport Minister S. Iswaran said there were five faults on the Thomson-East Coast Line since Stage 3 of the line opened four months ago. Two were owing to software issues, which have since been resolved, and three were caused by faulty components, which have since been replaced.
“Prior to opening a new stage of a line, the LTA and the rail operators conduct extensive testing to minimise the risks of service disruption or delay,” Mr Iswaran said. “Nevertheless, as rail systems contain many interlinked hardware and software elements, certain issues may only surface during the early phases of full-scale operation before the system stabilises.”
Responding to queries, the LTA and SMRT said in a joint statement that the TEL faults are unrelated, and detailed investigations to identify the root causes are ongoing.
LTA and SMRT added that they are working with the original equipment manufacturers to investigate and rectify the faulty components of the TEL trains to prevent a repeat of similar incidents.
The four faults on the North-South and East-West lines were also unrelated, they said – one was a train-related fault, one was caused by a train-borne signalling issue, one was a track fault, and the last was a track point fault.
SMRT said the train-related fault involved an older train from the first three generations of trains, which are being replaced.
Commuters polled said they are satisfied with the MRT.
Mr Eugene Mok, 37, a programme manager, said: “I am on hybrid work arrangement. On days that I return to office, there are no significant delays and the system seems to be running quite smoothly, even better than before Covid days, although the trains are as crowded as ever.”
IT consultant Davis Li, 39, said: “I use the Downtown Line, and so far no breakdown. The frequency of trains is within expectations too – two to three minutes during peak periods and three to six minutes during non-peak.”
In the 2022 annual commuter satisfaction survey conducted by the Public Transport Council, satisfaction over reliability slipped by 0.5 percentage point – dragged down by a 2.4 percentage point drop in bus service reliability and partially offset by a 1.5 percentage point rise in MRT service reliability.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

DBS/POSB digital services restored after outage lasting more than 12 hours​

From about 7am on Wednesday, users began reporting that DBS digibank online and mobile services, including the popular PayLah app, were all down. PHOTOS: ST READER

Ang Qing

Mar 29, 2023

SINGAPORE – Following an outage lasting more than 12 hours, DBS Bank customers were again able to use the bank’s digital banking services on Wednesday evening, after encountering problems logging into the portal earlier in the day.
In a Facebook post at about 7.30pm, DBS said DBS/POSB digibank mobile and online services, as well as DBS PayLah! and DBS mTrading services, have all returned to normal.
It added that it is monitoring the situation closely.
Earlier, DBS made the decision to extend banking services by two hours at all DBS and POSB branches as well as investment service Treasures centres, when its digital services suffered an outage early in the morning.
From about 7am, users began reporting that DBS digibank online and mobile services, including the popular PayLah app, were all down.

That was when complaints by DBS customers started emerging on the website Downdetector, which tracks outages. By 8.30am, there were more than 360 reports from DBS customers who were having trouble logging into the portal.
DBS issued a statement at about 9.20am to confirm that its digital services were down.

At 12.49pm, DBS said access to these services, as well as investment platform DBS Vickers mTrading, was spotty and the connection might be slow for those who did manage to log in.
It said: “Please be assured that your deposits and monies are safe and secure.”
Earlier, DBS said customers could stay assured that its systems are secure and uncompromised, and that they could continue to use their DBS/POSB cards for transactions.
Several unhappy customers took to DBS’ Facebook page to report a host of issues, including being unable to retrieve one-time passwords and receiving prompts to reset their personal identification number (PIN).
One such user was engineer Su Yuanchang, who said he tried up to seven times from 8am to use the mobile banking app to pay his bills but, to his mounting frustration, his attempts were unsuccessful.
Mr Su, who is in his 50s, said: “It kept asking me to reset my PIN when I wanted to change my transaction limits, but I didn’t receive any PIN. Eventually, I couldn’t log in at all.”
Facebook user Mawar Elin Mamat said she was unable to pay her hospital bills because of the outage.
On March 24, DBS PayLah app users faced delays in receiving their cashback when they made payments in the hopes of claiming a $3 meal subsidy offered by the bank.
The delays were caused by a high volume of logins, the bank said then.
In November 2021, a malfunctioning access control server disrupted services for DBS Bank and POSB users over three days, resulting in the bank’s worst digital disruption in a decade.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

MAS says disruption of DBS digital services unacceptable, calls for thorough probe into cause​

MAS has instructed DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to find out the root cause of the disruption. ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW

Gabrielle Chan

Mar 29, 2023

SINGAPORE - The disruption of DBS Bank’s digital services just a little more than a year after a similar incident in November 2021 is unacceptable, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
In response to queries, MAS - the country’s financial regulator - said it takes seriously the reliability of banks’ critical IT systems, and that DBS has fallen short of MAS’ expectations to maintain the availability of systems at a high level.
MAS added that it has instructed DBS to conduct a thorough investigation to establish the root cause of the disruption and submit the findings to the regulator.
“MAS will take the commensurate supervisory actions after gathering the necessary facts,” said MAS.
DBS notified MAS early this morning that its customers were experiencing difficulties logging in to its digital banking services, it added.
It said: “MAS has been in close contact with DBS to ensure expedited recovery of its digital services and timely communications to customers on the disruption.
“We note the bank has since resumed normal digital banking services to normal and is monitoring the situation.”

The 12-hour-long outage of DBS’ services on Wednesday rendered customers unable to use the bank’s digital banking services.
From about 7am, users began reporting that DBS digibank online and mobile services were down.
At about 8.30am, there were more than 360 reports from DBS customers who were having trouble logging into the portal.
By about 7.30pm, all DBS/POSB digibank mobile and online services, as well as DBS PayLah! and DBS mTrading services returned to normal.
In a statement late on Wednesday, DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta said the bank is disappointed that many of its customers were unable to access digital banking services.
He said: “We hold ourselves to higher standards and it is our utmost priority to review the events of today. We acknowledge the gravity of the situation, appreciate our customers’ understanding, and deeply regret the inconvenience caused.”

 

[winnipegjets]

Ah Nehs run this bank, what can you expect? If Sinkapore is to be truly independent, getting rid of Ah Nehs from this bank is the first step.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

DBS apologises for ‘embarrassing’ service disruption, sets up special committee to look into incident​

Customers of DBS Bank were unable to access DBS digibank online and mobile services, as well as the popular PayLah app and investment platform DBS Vickers, on Wednesday. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Prisca Ang

Mar 31, 2023

SINGAPORE – DBS Bank has apologised to its shareholders and customers for a disruption to its digital banking services.
Singapore’s largest bank said during its annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday that it will also set up a special board committee to look into the cause of the disruption, which left many of its customers unable to carry out their online banking activities on Wednesday.
Chief executive Piyush Gupta said the disruption, the second incident in 16 months, has been sobering for DBS.
“As such a well-known digital and technology bank, this embarrasses us. We are committed to doing better,” he said.
“Ensuring uninterrupted digital banking services 24/7 has been our key priority. Unfortunately, we fell short of it and are truly sorry,” he said during the AGM, which saw DBS chairman Peter Seah bowing to shareholders to show his regret at the incident.
Customers of Singapore’s largest bank were unable to access DBS digibank online and mobile services, as well as the popular PayLah app and investment platform DBS Vickers, from early Wednesday morning. The disruption lasted until about 5.30pm, the bank said on Friday.
Mr Gupta said that after the previous incident in 2021, the bank had worked with independent experts to strengthen its recovery protocols, shore up its engineering team and better understand its third-party systems.

“But unfortunately, it was not enough,” he said, adding that only 40 per cent to 50 per cent of its customers could access its online services on Wednesday.
He added that the bank decided to carry out the next stage of its recovery protocols after lunchtime. This involved firing up its backup servers – a process that took nearly two hours and required “complete downtime”.
The bank fully restored its digital services around 5.30pm.

A thorough review of the incident is under way, and it is still too early to figure out what the exact problem was, said Mr Gupta.
Mr Seah called the incident “very unfortunate and disappointing”.
“Our customers have every right to expect more of us. So, underscoring the gravity of the matter, we will be convening a special board committee with immediate effect to conduct a full and detailed investigation of the incident.”
The committee will include board members – independent director Olivier Lim; board risk management committee chairman Tham Sai Choy; tech expert and veteran banker Bonghan Cho; and Mr Chng Kai Fong, who also sits on the board of the Government Technology Agency.
“In addition to these four, we will engage external experts with broad and deep experience in overseeing large-scale IT systems and operations to work with the committee. I have full confidence that they will be thorough and exacting in their review and recommendations,” said Mr Seah.
Mr Gupta added that the bank’s management will provide the necessary support to the special board committee.

From about 7am on Wednesday, users began reporting that DBS digibank online and mobile services, including the popular PayLah app, were down. PHOTOS: ST READER
In response to queries about the latest disruption, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) called it “unacceptable”, and said it takes seriously the reliability of banks’ critical IT systems.
DBS has fallen short of the regulator’s expectations to “maintain high system availability and ensure its IT systems are recovered expeditiously”, MAS said on Wednesday.
The regulator added that it has instructed the bank to conduct a thorough investigation to establish the root cause of the disruption and submit the findings.
“MAS will take the commensurate supervisory actions after gathering the necessary facts,” it said.
Wednesday’s disruption was the latest in a spate of incidents in recent years where the lender found itself in hot water over its digital banking services.

DBS was slapped with a requirement to set aside an additional $930 million in regulatory capital last year following a widespread outage of its digital banking services in November 2021. A malfunctioning access control server had disrupted services for DBS and POSB users over three days, resulting in the bank’s worst digital disruption in a decade.
This amount was also four times higher than the $230 million DBS had to set aside for a similar disruption of its digital banking services in 2010.
DBS also came under fire in June 2021 over a payment processing glitch that caused some customers to be charged twice for transactions made on credit and debit cards. Those affected received automatic refunds.
On March 24 this year, PayLah users also faced delays in receiving their cashback when they made payments in hopes of claiming a $3 meal subsidy offered by the bank. These delays were caused by a high volume of logins, the bank said then.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Forum: Digitalisation push causing seniors to be left out of CC events​

June 22, 2023

Several events organised by Hwi Yoh Community Centre (CC), such as the upcoming Fruits Fiesta on July 9, require scanning a QR code for registration and payment.
When my mother, a 77-year-old socially active senior, asked whether she could register directly with the CC without using the QR code, the answer was a firm no and that she should ask her own children for help.
While I am willing and able to help my mother with the registration, this digital process inconveniences seniors, especially those who are childless or not living with their children.
The QR code registration is a complicated process for many seniors who are not digitally savvy – they may not know how to scan the QR code, log in using their Singpass account at the directed website, and input credit card details for payment.
My mother said that due to the compulsory digital registration, many of her elderly friends exclude themselves from CC activities because they do not want to trouble their children over such trivial tasks.
The unintended social exclusion of these seniors goes against current policy emphasis on ageing-in-place and social connectedness among them.
The push for digitalisation is necessary to ensure Singapore meets its Smart Nation objectives, but it should not come at a cost to senior citizens’ independence and dignity. Some seniors may not want or are unable to bridge the digital knowledge and skill gaps.

A more balanced approach is needed to ensure that non-tech-savvy seniors are not left behind. Alternative non-digital registration methods must be made available to allow them to join in community activities without overcoming an avoidable digital hurdle.

Lim Aik Meng

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Human error over coding led to 6-hour disruption of DBS banking services in May: SM Tharman​

Ili Nadhirah Mansor/TODAY
A screenshot of the DBS Internet banking login page showing an error message on March 29, 2023.

• A disruption to DBS Bank’s digital banking and ATM services on May 5, 2023 was caused by human error in coding the program used for system maintenance, Parliament has heard
• This led to a significant reduction in system capacity, which affected the system’s ability to process internet and mobile banking, electronic payments, and ATM transactions
• Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam gave the update in response to questions from Jurong GRC MP Tan Wu Meng on Wednesday (July 5)
• The over six-hour disruption was DBS' second in two months, prompting the Monetary Authority of Singapore to call it "unacceptable" and impose fresh capital requirements on DBS

SUFIYAN SAMSURI​

Published July 5, 2023

SINGAPORE — A disruption to DBS Bank’s digital banking and ATM services on May 5, 2023 was due to human error in coding the program used for system maintenance, Parliament was told on Wednesday (July 5).
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam provided an update on the issue in response to questions filed by Member of Parliament (MP) for Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Tan Wu Meng.
Dr Tan asked about the cause of the May disruption, and what is being done to strengthen the reliability and resilience of retails banks with significant market share here, especially in relation to digital banking services.
In his response, Mr Tharman, speaking on behalf of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said that DBS' preliminary investigation showed that human error caused a significant reduction in system capacity.
This affected the system’s ability to process internet and mobile banking, electronic payment and ATM transactions, said Mr Tharman, who is also Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Monetary of Authority Singapore (MAS) chairman.

In a statement at the time, DBS had blamed the over six-hour disruption, the second to hit the bank in two months, on "a systems issue". It did not mention human error at that time.
Mr Tharman added that according to DBS, the cause of the incident was unrelated to the earlier March 2023 disruption, which was caused by inherent software bugs.
He said that DBS convened a special board committee to oversee the root cause investigation and a comprehensive review of the bank’s IT resilience following the March 2023 incident.
Following the May incident, MAS then tasked the committee to extend its review to cover the latest incident and to use “qualified independent third parties” for the review.
“The MAS has stated publicly that it regards this second disruption within a period of two months as unacceptable, and that DBS had fallen short of MAS’ expectation for banks to deliver reliable services to their customers,” Mr Tharman said.
He added that MAS' move to impose additional capital requirements on DBS reflects the seriousness with which MAS views the recent disruptions and the impact that they have had on customers.

“MAS may vary the size of the additional capital requirement imposed on the bank and take other regulatory actions depending on the outcome of ongoing reviews," he said.
“MAS requires all retail banks in Singapore to ensure that their mission critical systems supporting digital banking are resilient. This includes having the ability to recover quickly from any system disruptions,” he said.
Mr Tharman said that banks are subject to regular inspections and off-site reviews by MAS to ensure their adherence to regulatory requirements and expectations.
More details on the disruptions will be provided by the bank publicly when the review is completed, he added.
TODAY has sought comment from DBS.

 

[batman1]

MAS $30 billion loss,chairman botak promoted to become president. 555

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

6½-hour DBS service disruption in May due to human error, probe finds​

The outage on May 5 was DBS’ second disruption in two months. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Lee Li Ying
Correspondent

July 6, 2023

SINGAPORE - The 6½-hour disruption to DBS services on May 5 was caused by human error, and unrelated to an earlier 10-hour outage in March 2023.
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam gave this update on Wednesday in a written answer to a parliamentary question by Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong GRC) on the cause of the disruption, and what is being done to strengthen the reliability and resilience of retail banks with significant market share in Singapore.
The outage on May 5 was DBS’ second disruption in two months, which the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said was unacceptable.
Mr Tharman, who is chairman of MAS, said that according to the bank’s preliminary investigations, the disruption was due to human error in coding the programme that was used for system maintenance.
“The error led to a significant reduction in system capacity, which in turn affected the system’s ability to process Internet and mobile banking, electronic payment and ATM transactions,” said Mr Tharman.
This intermittently affected customers’ access to these services.
Mr Tharman added that the earlier disruption in March 2023 was caused by inherent software bugs.

He also noted that following the March 2023 incident, DBS had convened a special board committee to oversee the investigation into the root cause and a comprehensive review of the bank’s IT resilience. MAS also required the special board committee to extend its review to cover the latest incident and to use qualified independent third parties for the review.
More details on the disruptions will be provided by the bank publicly when the review is completed, he said.
A day after the May 5 disruption, MAS ordered an additional capital requirement on the bank.
DBS Bank will now need to apply a multiplier of 1.8 times to its risk-weighted assets for operational risk, up from the 1.5 times multiplier previously applied in 2022, after it suffered its worst outage in more than a decade in November 2021.
This means that the additional regulatory capital it must set aside now stands at about $1.6 billion, to buffer for unexpected losses and keep itself solvent in times of crisis.
Mr Tharman said the imposition of capital requirements on DBS reflects the seriousness with which MAS views the recent disruptions and the impact that they have had on customers. MAS may vary the size of the additional capital requirement imposed on the bank and take other regulatory actions depending on the outcome of ongoing reviews.
“MAS requires all retail banks in Singapore to ensure that their mission-critical systems supporting digital banking are resilient. This includes having the ability to recover quickly from any system disruptions,” he said, adding that banks are subject to regular inspections and off-site reviews by MAS to ensure their adherence to regulatory requirements and expectations.

 

[batman1]

It's OK. No evidence of wrongdoing or criminal misconduct.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

FTX blow-up is ‘an aberration’ in early stage investments: Temasek CEO​

(From left) Temasek’s chief investment officer Rohit Sipahimalani, deputy chief executive Chia Song Hwee, executive director and CEO Dilhan Pillay and chief financial officer Png Chin Yee at the annual Temasek Review on July 11. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

Claire Huang
Business Correspondent

July 11, 2023

SINGAPORE - The blow-up of disgraced American cryptocurrency exchange FTX is “an aberration” in early stage investments, Temasek Holding’s chief executive said, adding that it is “very difficult” to determine how an investment will turn out from the start.
In early stage investing, one has to accept the binary outcome of the investment, said Mr Dilhan Pillay, who is also Temasek’s executive director.
He said in the case of FTX, which resulted in the group writing off its US$275 million (S$369 million) bet on the firm, the blow-up was to do with what is perceived to be individual actions, in a reference to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried is accused of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as orchestrating the theft of billions of dollars of customer assets, following the collapse of FTX in November 2022.
Temasek said in late May that it would cut the pay of its investment team and senior management as a result of the FTX debacle, although no misconduct was found. The one-off pay cut was reported to have been carried out.
Speaking at the Singapore state investor’s annual review on Tuesday, Mr Pillay said the investment team and senior management decided to take a pay cut because of the reputational damage from the FTX incident, particularly as the implosion came so soon after the investment was made. Temasek had pumped money into FTX across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022.
When asked why no one was let go as a result of Temasek’s poor investment in FTX, Mr Pillay said: “If you were to start to punish people beyond what we’ve done, who would want to be an investor?”

He added that as an investor, one takes calibrated risks, and “as long as you’ve done the work required to make the investment, the committee approves it, it goes forward”.
However, should an investment turn sour and negatively impact Temasek’s reputation, more punitive actions such as pay cuts could be taken, Mr Pillay said.
This is “to remind ourselves that every time we do something, the issue is not just the financial risk associated with the investment, it’s the reputational risk associated with us, and we take that very seriously,” he said.

Mr Pillay noted that most of Temasek’s investments have done well and very few have done very badly, like FTX. Others had started off performing well but became progressively worse, either due to external market conditions or internal conditions.
The state investor had held a 1.5 per cent stake in FTX and the investment constituted 0.09 per cent of its $403 billion portfolio as at end March 2022.
The group was one of the exchange’s largest external investors, alongside Sequoia Capital and Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. In November 2022, Sequoia wrote down the full value of its US$214 million investment in FTX.
Mr Rohit Sipahimalani, Temasek’s chief investment officer, said at the briefing that “FTX clearly was a situation we’re all disappointed with”.
He said Temasek caps the exposure to early-stage companies at 6 per cent of its total portfolio, of which half are venture capital funds and the other half comprise over 200 companies that included FTX.
“We invested in FTX because at that time, it seemed like a company having good technology, it was rapidly gaining market share and all the checks with regulators suggested that they were very regulatory compliant and wanted to get licensed everywhere, so all that led us to invest in that company,” said Mr Sipahimalani.

He added that lessons have been learnt and that the group has enhanced its due diligence processes in the hopes of avoiding such situations in future, while “recognising that fraud is something that is difficult to protect against completely”.
Looking ahead, the group has built what it calls the “Temasek operating system” as part of its 2030 strategy.
This refers to a suite of specialised, next-generation capabilities in five areas – artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cyber security, data and digital, and sustainable solutions.
Temasek’s deputy chief executive Chia Song Hwee said these capabilities will be essential for the future and could differentiate the group as a value-adding investor and shareholder.
For now though, the group is trying to understand more about the business-to-business applications of AI and its investment in this area is “still a very small portion” of the portfolio, he said.
Mr Sipahimalani said the group will continue to invest in established tech companies as it is clear they will be winners, but said Temasek is less excited about investing directly in some of the start-ups for now as their revenue models are unclear and valuations are high.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Stricter rules for electricity retailers to better protect consumers​

The new requirements were announced by Energy Market Authority in a paper on Monday, after a public consultation. ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG

Cheryl Tan

JUL 31, 2023

SINGAPORE – Consumers will have better protection against volatile electricity prices, with stricter requirements for retailers coming into force progressively from August.
Under the new rules, electricity retailers must have a total net worth of $1 million when they apply for or renew their licence, to ensure they are credible and have sufficient financial standing, said the Energy Market Authority (EMA).
Retailers will also need EMA’s approval in appointing people to key positions, such as the chief executive.
This comes after six electricity retailers were forced to exit the market in 2021, while two others terminated contracts prematurely, leaving some customers scrambling to find other suppliers.
The new requirements were announced by EMA in a paper on Monday, after a public consultation.
EMA said the enhanced regulatory framework is one of the guardrails to strengthen the competitive market structure.
With the nationwide roll-out of the open electricity market in 2018, all consumers including households and small businesses could opt to buy electricity from retailers.

However, the onset of the global energy crunch at end-2021 resulted in high, volatile prices in the Singapore wholesale electricity market, which spilt over to the electricity retail market, EMA said.
Retailers will not be allowed to unilaterally terminate a contract if there is no payment or contractual default by the consumer.
To ensure fairness, those that impose early termination charges will be required to compensate consumers at least as much as the penalties they levy, said EMA. All retailers currently impose these early termination charges.

The eight retailers in question supplied electricity to around 9 per cent of all consumers, and some of those affected were transferred to state-owned SP Group, noted EMA.
Currently, about 40 per cent of households here have plans with the 10 existing private retailers.
The new rules will ensure the electricity retailers are “financially robust” with strong governance and risk management – to not only tide through occasional volatile periods in the electricity market but also maintain confidence in the sector, said Mr Sharad Somani, head of professional services firm KPMG’s ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) arm.
The existing retailers – Geneco, Keppel Electric, PacificLight Energy, Sembcorp Power, Senoko Energy, Sunseap Energy, Tuas Power Supply, Diamond Electric, Union Power and Flo Energy – will also have to hedge at least 80 per cent of their retail contract position, up from 50 per cent previously, and provide a performance bond for the remaining unhedged quantity, to increase resilience against market volatility.
Dr David Broadstock, a senior research fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, said that with a more comprehensive hedge coverage, volatile prices on the wholesale electricity market will have a smaller influence over the final electricity price. This will ensure better business planning, with higher price certainty that should benefit both the retailers and their customers.
The EMA said that with the growth of energy-intensive sectors such as food and transport, as well as advanced manufacturing, power needs will go up by 2028.
It is looking to increase its electricity capacity with a new generation plant to be up and running by then.
The facility will have a capacity of at least 600MW – enough to power about 864,000 four-room flats for a year – and will be ready by end-2027.

The agency noted that system peak demand – which refers to the time of day with the highest electricity consumption – is expected to reach between 9.3 gigawatts and 11.6 gigawatts by 2028.
A new system peak demand of 7.8 gigawatts was reached in May 2023 amid record-high temperatures.
Said Mr Somani: “The key benefit to the sector is getting security of supply in a more sustainable and affordable manner.
“Singapore must work to ensure availability, reliability and competitiveness of the power made available to drive the economic engine as well as meet the demand of consumers.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

OCBC restores all services after facing ‘network issues’ on Monday morning​

Netizens reported having problems - ranging from bill payments to public transport - using the bank’s services from about 9.30am. PHOTO: ST READER
Christie Chiu

AUG 28, 2023

SINGAPORE – All of OCBC Bank’s services have been restored, following “network issues” that led to an outage of its services on Monday morning.
Earlier in the day, the bank said in a Facebook post that its mobile and online banking, PayNow, ATMs, Velocity – the bank’s digital business banking platform – and cards were down because of “technical problems”, and that customers could visit OCBC branches for urgent transactions.
The Facebook post was amended at about 12.25pm to say: “We have restored all our banking services... We thank our customers for their patience and understanding. We want to assure them that their monies remained safe and customer data was secured throughout.
“We are investigating the cause of the technical problem and will provide an update as soon as we can.”
When contacted in the morning, OCBC said the outage began at around 8.30am, and that the bank was “on standby to deploy additional resources at branches and extend branch banking hours to support our customers”.
Netizens reported having problems using the bank’s services – ranging from paying of bills to public transport fares – from about 9.30am.
The bank then said in two Facebook updates at about 10.30am and 10.40am that card and branch services, as well as ATM services, had been restored.

Ms Samantha Shum said she tried accessing mobile banking services at around 10.45am but was still unable to log in to her account.
The 23-year-old, who works in the real estate sector, said: “I’m not worried because the outages usually resolve quite quickly and I have other bank accounts. But people who use only OCBC are probably more frustrated.”
On Monday evening, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said that it was “following up with the bank on the root cause of the incident and will take supervisory follow-up actions as needed”.

 

[borom]

How many CECA in OCBC's IT Department ?

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Singapore’s anti-money laundering regime is sound, says DBS chief Piyush Gupta​

DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta said banks had already been more cautious over the last 15 years since the global financial crisis. PHOTO: REUTERS

Angela Tan
Senior Correspondent

SEP 15, 2023

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s anti-money-laundering regime is sound, with banks having invested heavily in anti-fraud technology since the global financial crisis, said DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta, although no system can be 100 per cent foolproof.
“Looking for illicit actors and funds is like finding a needle in a haystack,” he told The Straits Times following a Reuters Newsmaker event on Thursday.
Major banks such as United Overseas Bank, Standard Chartered, Malaysia’s CIMB Bank, Citigroup’s local subsidiary, Deutsche Bank, DBS and the Bank of Singapore have recently been linked to one of Singapore’s largest money-laundering cases involving more than $1.8 billion in assets, including properties, luxury cars and cash.
DBS, for one, has taken a security interest to secure the repayment of a loan to Aiqinhai Investment, whose director and sole shareholder Su Haijin is among the 10 individuals who have been charged in the case.
Property agents, precious metals dealers and golf clubs here have also been drawn into the scandal, raising questions about the guardrails against illicit money flowing into one of the world’s most important financial hubs.
Mr Gupta said banks had already been more cautious over the last 15 years since the global financial crisis. Not only did they invest in anti-fraud technology, but they also leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand their customers, their backgrounds, sources of funds and wealth, as well as the types of transactions being executed.
“It’s not just the people and technology, but some of the biggest advances in AI in banking are in this space, such as fuzzy logic and network link analysis.”

As banks are expected to be the “global policeman”, technology is used to help check for sanctions, terrorism financing and money laundering.
“But at the same time, we’re moving trillions of dollars and billions of transactions every day. We also file suspicious transaction reports all the time. Less than 1 per cent of the suspicious transaction reports actually result in anything,” said Mr Gupta.
By and large, he added, banks today do a fairly good job and the regulatory rules are very tight. This is why Singapore has a good reputation with the global money-laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, and other global institutions.

“If you have a good police force, you should have zero crime in the country, but no country can achieve zero crime.
“It’s not dissimilar in the financial landscape. When we put in all our systems, even at a 99.99 per cent catch, you’ll always find that some stuff goes through.
“I think the good news is that the system was able to pick it up, and the system responded well.”

An area banks can “dial up scrutiny on” is in their financing of properties, said Mr Gupta, as real estate is one of the sectors targeted by criminals to “wash” their ill-gotten gains.
On whether the flood of Chinese money flowing into Singapore has distorted the country’s monetary policy by inflating property prices, Mr Gupta said: “It’s somewhat overstated because a large part of the overseas investment has been in the luxury premium segment... but it doesn’t actually impact the mass property market.”
He believes the property market has been driven by “home-grown demand”, such as people seeking to upgrade from public housing to private properties in the million-dollar bracket, and not foreign demand.
Singapore’s move to double property taxes for foreigners signals that policymakers are growing more cognisant of surging money inflows from wealthy Chinese and their spillover effects.
From April 27, foreigners pay 60 per cent tax on any residential property purchase, while the rate for using an entity or trust was raised to 65 per cent to prevent any circumvention of the rules.

Touching on China, Mr Gupta said the world’s second-largest economy after the United States is trying to restructure and remodel its economy, and there will be short- to medium-term pain to bear. With a gross domestic product of about US$18.1 trillion (S$24.6 trillion) in 2022, investors should focus on opportunities.
DBS plans to increase its stake in Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank, which he expects will list on the stock market in the future. DBS bought 13 per cent of the Chinese bank in 2021.
“One of our strengths is we are willing to look through the cycles... If there are headwinds, we slow down,” he said.
Looking at DBS’ investments in the region, Mr Gupta said Taiwan could add up to $1.5 billion to the group revenue next year, while India could add $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in the next three to five years.
“We have hit an inflexion point in terms of scaling. Some of these markets will start contributing back.”

 

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Some customers using DBS’ PayNow on Tuesday experience delays in transactions​

The bank had a 6½-hour disruption to its services on May 5 and a 12-hour disruption in March. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Wallace Woon

SEP 27, 2023

SINGAPORE – Some DBS customers experienced delays, among other issues, while using the bank’s PayNow service on Tuesday afternoon.
According to Downdetector, which tracks disruptions and issues in various service providers, there were about 163 complaints at 3.53pm on Tuesday.
One customer told The Straits Times that his account had double the amount deducted from it after he tried to make a transfer.
Mr Sim, who declined to reveal his full name, said: “I had transferred a sum of around $1,700 to my friend some time around 4pm, but the deduction from my account took place twice, and they received twice the amount instead.”
Several netizens said on DBS’ Facebook page that they were left with a “Pending” message after making a transaction, with one stating that the amount transferred had been deducted from their account but not received by the recipients’ bank.
In a post on Facebook at 6.02pm on Tuesday, DBS said that it was aware that some customers had experienced delays in their PayNow and Fast transactions and that the issue was rectified at 4.30pm.
DBS added: “We would like to assure customers that their delayed transaction will be processed by today. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused.”

Checks by ST showed that some customers were still experiencing the delay in their transactions at around 5.50pm.
The bank had a 6½-hour disruption to its services on May 5, caused by human error, and a 12-hour disruption in March, caused by inherent software bugs.
In an update at 9.05pm on Tuesday, DBS said on Facebook that its Fast and PayNow services had returned to normal at 7.40pm.
DBS added: “Please be assured that transactions that were affected by the delay are being processed. We will provide further updates on our progress in due course.”

 

[oliverlee]

This one not his fault lah. The coolies are either half fucked or got their PhDs from Uptron, where the sun rises from the west. How to compete?

 

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MAS working with DBS to find cause of PayNow disruption​

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will also be following up on DBS's handling of affected customers and transactions. PHOTO: ST FILE

Ang Qing

OCT 2, 2023

SINGAPORE – The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is working with DBS Bank to pinpoint the root cause of a disruption to the bank’s PayNow and Fast And Secure Transfers (Fast) services last week.
In response to media queries, an MAS spokesman said on Monday that DBS had on Sept 26 informed the regulator that a disruption had affected “numerous” customers.
Fast is an electronic inter-bank fund transfer service.
While services were restored within the day, reconciliation of transactions and remediation for affected DBS/POSB accounts were completed only three days later, the spokesman said.
Reconciliation is a process that ensures unauthorised charges have not occurred to transactions during processing.
“MAS expects banks to have the ability to recover quickly from any system disruption, and to address and resolve the impact to customers swiftly and transparently,” the spokesman added.
The authority said it would be following up with DBS on the root cause of the incident, as well as its handling of the affected customers and transactions.

On Sept 26, several DBS customers experienced delays, among other issues, while using the bank’s PayNow service.
According to Downdetector, which tracks disruptions and issues involving various service providers, there were 163 complaints at 3.53pm that day.
One customer told The Straits Times that his account had double the amount deducted from it after he tried to make a transfer.
The recent interruption to services comes after two major disruptions to DBS’ services.
The bank experienced a 6½-hour disruption to its services on May 5, caused by human error, and a 12-hour disruption in March, caused by inherent software bugs.

 

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DBS, Citi progressively restoring banking services following disruptions on Saturday​

DBS has apologised for the inconvenience caused. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

Yong Li Xuan

Oct 14, 2023

SINGAPORE – DBS Bank and Citibank are progressively restoring their banking services, after scores of their customers could not use their online and mobile services on Saturday afternoon.
DBS customers were also reportedly unable to use their cards for physical transactions.
The Downdetector website, which tracks service disruptions, had 3,800 people reporting issues with DBS’ services at 4.08pm, and 279 complaints about Citibank’s services at 4.42pm.
In a Facebook update at 6.08pm on Saturday, DBS said its investigations showed that the service disruption was caused by an issue at a data centre, which is also being used by other organisations.
Some netizens on social media said they faced issues using Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as Citibank’s services. Meta users in India, South Africa, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates and Maldives posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, about difficulties accessing the tech giant’s platforms.
DBS announced in November 2017 that it was partnering US data centre operator Equinix to plug one of the bank’s data centres in Singapore into the cloud.
Asked if it was the data centre affected in the service disruptions, Equinix told The Straits Times it is aware that a technical issue at one of its data centres impacted some customers’ operations, including DBS, and it is investigating.

“The technical issue has since been resolved, and we are in contact with those impacted customers and have expressed our sincere apologies,” it added.
A Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) spokesperson said it was informed by both banks on Saturday afternoon that their customers had difficulties accessing banking or payment services.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that the service disruptions were caused by an issue at a common data centre that is used by the banks,” the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson said MAS has been following up closely with the banks to resume services fully, as well as to support and communicate with affected customers.
DBS said it expects to progressively restore services from 7pm. It added at 10.10pm that all its automated teller machines (ATM) were working. All its branches had been reactivated to assist its customers, except those at Tampines Central, Tampines One and White Sands.
DBS said: “We seek your patience as we recover our services.”


Earlier, DBS acknowledged on Facebook that its customers were unable to access its banking services and apologised for the inconvenience caused.
It also said its systems have not been compromised.
Citi said in a 6.58pm Facebook post that its mobile app and Internet banking services were down.
When contacted, a Citi spokesperson said: “We have a temporary outage in our banking services and have started progressively restoring services. We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused.”


Netizens complained on the fuckwarezone forum and commented on DBS and POSB’s posts on Facebook about being unable to access the bank’s app and website, as well as use their cards to make payments in stores.
Also, supermarket chain FairPrice’s app warned users that payment using DBS, POSB and Citibank was unavailable.
Error messages were shown on DBS and POSB’s apps, alongside a notice saying scheduled maintenance was being carried out. However, checks by The Straits Times on the DBS website showed that maintenance had not been scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

Error messages were shown on DBS and POSB’s apps on Saturday. PHOTO: ST
DBS customers were reportedly unable to use the bank’s ATMs in Toa Payoh, Bishan and Sengkang.

POSB customers have also been unable to use the bank’s automated teller machines on Saturday. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
DBS customers experienced delays and other payment issues most recently on Sept 26, while using the bank’s PayNow service. According to Downdetector, there were 163 complaints at 3.53pm that day.
The MAS said on Oct 2 that it was working with DBS to pinpoint the cause of the disruption to the bank’s PayNow and Fast And Secure Transfers (Fast) services. Fast is an electronic interbank fund transfer service.

 

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Repeated disruptions and single-point failures challenge the presumed resilience of Singapore’s digital banking system​

17 October 2023 by Terry Xu

Recently, Singapore’s banking sector has faced several disruptions, notably with DBS Bank, eroding public confidence significantly.
Social media platforms are abuzz with customers, especially those using DBS/POSB, expressing dismay over the inconveniences caused by these digital banking setbacks. Their reliance on digital wallets, having moved away from cash, amplifies their frustration. For instance, even from Taiwan, I experienced a direct impact — my cab fare payment via POSB was denied due to the recent Saturday disruption.
Singapore’s goal isn’t a cashless society, primarily to accommodate the elderly. However, the dream may remain distant not because of slow merchant adoption or demographic challenges, but due to dwindling trust in digital banking systems stemming from recurrent service lapses.
Highlighting this issue was the recent 12-hour outage at DBS and Citibank, precipitated by a single point of failure at an Equinix data centre—In this case, a cooling failure. This incident underscores the urgent need for comprehensive redundancy safeguards within digital banking infrastructures.
To grasp the severity of these concerns, it’s essential to revisit the commitments and assurances provided by the authorities, especially those articulated by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the current Singapore President and former Senior Minister and Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in response to specific queries raised by Members of Parliament.
In April 2023, addressing Parliamentary Questions (PQ) raised by Mr Ang Wei Neng, MP for West Coast GRC, regarding the DBS disruption in March, it was said that the disruption on 29 March 2023, was caused by inherent software bugs.
Mr Tharman then assured, “DBS has since undertaken measures to mitigate the identified gaps. The bank is committed to enhancing the resilience of its digital banking system, focusing on enhancing its access control architecture, building in more redundancy, monitoring its key system components more closely, and improving its system restoration processes.”
Following the subsequent disruption on 5 May 2023, which lasted 6.5 hours, it was conveyed that the disruption resulted from human error during system maintenance programming.

Furthermore, in addressing questions from Dr Tan Wu Meng, MP for Jurong GRC and Mr Desmond Choo, MP for Tampines GRC, Mr Tharman underscored the urgency with which these incidents were being treated.
He stated that the MAS found the frequency of disruptions unacceptable and emphasized that banks must quickly identify problems, restore services, and communicate transparently with affected customers.
Mr Tharman pointed out that MAS requires all retail banks in Singapore to ensure that their mission-critical systems supporting digital banking are resilient, including having the ability to recover quickly from any system disruptions.
“Banks are subject to regular inspections and off-site reviews by MAS to ensure their adherence to regulatory requirements and expectations,” said Mr Tharman.
However, the incident on Saturday (14 Oct), casts a stark light on the effectiveness of these assurances.
Despite prior incidents, specifically the significant disruptions on 29 March 2023 due to software bugs, 5 May 2023 due to human coding error, and a notable case in November 2021, the recent outage suggests that the measures taken by DBS and the standards enforced by MAS may not be sufficient.
Customers are justifiably frustrated, as the promises of improved redundancy, better monitoring, and expedited restoration processes appear glaringly inconsistent with the reality of another major disruption.
Particularly troubling is the promise to eliminate single points of failure, a commitment now cast in doubt following the Equinix data centre debacle. This incident, which disrupted multiple banks, signals a systemic vulnerability. The prolonged 12-hour outage further implies a glaring absence of adequate redundancy systems designed to assume control during such points of failure.

Furthermore, the precise questions raised by MPs—such as the number of banking disruptions lasting more than one hour in the past five years, the banks involved, and the lessons learned from these disruptions—remain pertinent. They underscore the necessity for continuous scrutiny and accountability in ensuring that both financial institutions and regulators uphold the highest standards of operational reliability.
So far, MAS has not issued any statement regarding the disruption that occurred last Saturday.
In light of DBS’s six-hour disruption in May, Ms Ho Hern Shin, Deputy Managing Director (Financial Supervision) of MAS, issued a stern statement: “DBS Bank has fallen short of MAS’s expectations for banks to provide reliable services to their customers. The repeated inconvenience caused to the public is unacceptable. The additional capital requirement imposed at this time underscores the seriousness with which MAS views this matter. DBS Bank must spare no effort in addressing the underlying issues leading to these disruptions.”
Now, despite the disruption lasting over 12 hours, the silence from MAS is particularly concerning. Is MAS implying that since many companies other than DBS were affected, it cannot fault DBS for its service lapse?
Stakeholders expected a proactive response, consistent with the authority’s prior commitments to maintaining stability and trust in the banking system, as explicitly stated by Mr Tharman in his various replies.
This lack of communication, especially when compared with the detailed promises and measures outlined previously, not only erodes public confidence but also raises doubts about the preparedness of major financial institutions against unforeseen threats, including potential cyber-attacks.
In considering these disruptions, it is perhaps a small mercy that the recent incident emerged as an unforeseen mishap rather than a calculated act of sabotage intended to destabilize Singapore’s digital economy.
Nevertheless, the revelation is deeply troubling; the apparent lack of effective redundancy systems exposes a critical vulnerability. This deficiency suggests that, in the event of a targeted cyberattack, malefactors could exploit this single point of failure with ease, potentially crippling the nation’s digital infrastructure.

The ease of triggering such a widespread disruption points to an alarming reality: our current defences, or lack thereof, could inadvertently be laying out a welcome mat for those seeking to harm Singapore’s digital economy.
This glaring gap in systemic protection underscores the urgent need for comprehensive strategies, ensuring that fail-safes are in place to counteract the ramifications of any single data centre’s failure.
While MAS imposed an additional capital requirement on DBS in May, which, combined with the requirement imposed in February 2022, amounts to approximately S$1.6 billion in total additional regulatory capital, one must question its effectiveness.
Frankly, what repercussions does it hold for the bank if these actions do not impact its profit margins? Are any imposed penalties less consequential than the costs saved by the bank if it had not embarked on ensuring redundancy in its digital banking system?
The repeated incidents of service disruption call for a re-evaluation of the strategies employed by banks like DBS in safeguarding their digital banking systems, particularly in light of the bank’s proud announcement of the S$8.19 billion annual net profit it achieved in 2022 and DBS CEO Piyush Gupta’s staggering S$15.4 million salary in 2022.
It also underscores the need for MAS to reinforce its regulatory role, ensuring that these institutions not only make promises but also implement tangible, effective measures that withstand the demands of the evolving digital banking landscape.
The recent disruptions, the ensuing commitments, and the continued vulnerabilities indicate a gap between what is assured and what is delivered—a gap that requires urgent bridging to maintain the reputation of Singapore’s banking sector.