Major outage shuts down Bankwest services but system resumed Monday night

It was a nightmare on Monday for some Bankwest customers on Monday when the bank’s system suffered a major outage. The system outage shuttered ATMs, EFTPOS, app and online services.

As a result, some cardholders had to abandon their supermarket shopping, while others could not leave their car parks or pay for their petrol. However, by 8:30 pm, the system error was fixed and services restored, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

But because the system outage affected business transactions, Bankwest branches in Western Australia extended their banking hours until 6 pm to allow customers to complete their transactions. These are the outlets in Belmont, Booragoon, Ellenbrook, Innaloo, Joondalup, Livingstone, Mandurah, Morley, Rockingham, Vic Park, Wanneroo, Warwick and Willetton. Trading hours were also extended at its Paramatta branch in NSW, Fountain Gate in Victoria and Northlakes in Queensland.

In a statement, the bank said the technical issue that caused the outage was solved on Monday night “after successfully progressing the recovery and restoration of those impacted systems.” Bankwest says it would continue to test and closely monitor its systems to ensure normal operations. Further updates would be announced by Bankwest on its Facebook page, reports Computerworld.

However, the bank cautioned customers of a fake social media account with an alleged Bankwest staff replying to angry customers. Among the complaints of customers were children not being able to do activities planned for the first day of school, a woman motorist paying for parking in 15-minute increments because she could not leave the facility and another abandoning road trip to the outback for fear of running out of fuel.

VIDEO: Bankwest outage leaves customers stranded with ATM, EFTPOS outage