ANZ displaced Bank of Queensland and CBA as Australia’s most outage-prone online banking provider in the December quarter, according to the latest data reported through the Reserve Bank’s service availability disclosure framework.
Adelaide-based Beyond Bank said on Monday that its digital platforms had been out of action for 57 hours - more than what ANZ reported - but it has since notified customers and the RBA that it had no interruption to services during the quarter.
A bank spokesperson told Banking Day the misreporting was due to human error.
According to QI Insights, a Sydney-based payments data company that tracks the banks’ disclosures, the amount of service hours lost to outages across the industry increased by at least 14 per cent in the December quarter compared to the September period.
“There was about a 14 per cent rise in service hours lost in the three months ending in December and it could get bigger because several banks such as Suncorp and Great Southern Bank that reported no outages for the September quarter are yet to disclose their performance for the December period,” said QI Insights managing director, Peter Drennan.
Drennan also noted that three banks – ANZ, AMP Bank and Rabobank – had recorded outage levels above the industry average in the two quarters reported so far.
ANZ’s online systems were out of action for 38 hours and 37 minutes during the three months to the end of December, which is a record level of outage time reported by a major Australian bank.
According to ANZ’s disclosure statement, customers were unable to access accounts using online browsers or mobile apps for 17 hours during the quarter.
ANZ customers also incurred delays trying to initiate or receive fast payments for almost 16 hours.
The ability of customers to transact at ANZ branches was also impaired for 5 and a half hours.
The total time lost to outages at ANZ in the December quarter exceeded the previous quarterly record set by BoQ.
In the three months to the end of September BoQ reported service disruptions totalling 36 hours.
Both BoQ and CBA reported big improvements in service availability for the latest reporting period.
BoQ reported losing 6 hours and 20 minutes of service time in the quarter, while CBA said online banking services were disabled for less than six hours.
CBA lost 33 hours due to outages in the September quarter.
CBA’s Bankwest subsidiary reported no interruptions to services in the latest quarter.AMP Bank, a direct banking provider with no branches, suffered a slide in the performance of its digital platforms in the December quarter.
The bank’s online browser and mobile platforms racked up 27 hours and 25 minutes of combined outage time.
While Westpac’s flagship platforms reported a comparatively modest level of outage time (5 hours & 25 mins), customers of the group’s regional banking units – St George, Bank SA and Bank of Melbourne – were almost four times more likely to encounter service interruptions.
The three regional banks share the same technology systems and each reported losing 19 hours and 45 minutes of service time to