The central system that handles transfers between banks in Bonn failed, leading to the suspension of the transfer services of 11 banks. The timing of restoration is still unknown.
On the 10th, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the national bank payment network, which is a transfer network between financial companies in Japan, had a failure from the morning of the day.
As a result, 11 financial companies, including Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and several local banks, have suspended their transfer services.
Due to the system failure, not only individual transfers but also intercompany payments and deposits and withdrawals of securities accounts were disrupted.
At least 1.4 million financial transactions were affected by system failures.
This is the number of attempts to transfer from 11 financial companies affected by system failures, and if the number of cases sent from other banks to 11 financial companies is included, the damage will reach 3 million, Nikkei reported.
As the 10th is often the payment date for commerce in Japan, the number of payments is two to three times higher than usual, so it is likely that the payment between companies will have had a significant impact.
Mitsui Sumitomo Bank and Mizuho Bank, which are classified as Japan’s top three megabanks along with Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, are said to have no special problems.
This is the first time that the service has been disrupted due to a system failure since the national bank payment network was operated in 1973.
Nikkei reported that the problem was caused by an error in the process of updating the system during the holidays.
During the holiday from the 7th to the 9th, the network and each financial institution’s system updated the “broadcasting computer,” of which 11 financial institutions appear to have made an error in the function of checking interbank fees, according to the report.
First of all, 1 million of the number of transfers that made errors were processed using backup means, but the remaining 400,000 cases are expected to be delayed.
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
