Capitec restores services amid global outages
Capitec Bank:- South Africa largest retail bank, has restored functionality to its ATMs and banking app following disruptions to its services on Friday morning. Capitec, which is South Africa’s largest retail bank by customer numbers (22 million as of February 2024) – initially took to X to report it was experiencing service issues on all its banking channels. “We are currently experiencing nationwide service issues, affecting all services,” Capitec said in a post. “We are working hard to resolve this. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. “We recognise the inconvenience this has caused and wish to provide clarity and assurance to our valued clients.
JOHANNESBURG, July 19 (Reuters) – Services of South African lenders Capitec Bank (CPIJ.J), opens new tab and Absa (ABGJ.J), opens new tab and airline Airlink have been fully restored after experiencing disruptions early on Friday, the companies said, as a software update wreaked havoc on computer systems globally. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWDO), opens new tab appeared to have triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced some broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. Capitec said it experienced significant disruptions across all of its banking channels early in the morning because of CrowdStrike.
Capitec Bank
“Importantly, we want to reassure our clients that their bank accounts and personal data remain secure and unaffected by this incident,” the lender said in an emailed response to questions.
The South African bank of Absa Group said in a post on X that its digital banking channels, point-of-sale services and ATMs are all functional and access to its rewards hub is now restored.
“As at 1 p.m. today, the global third-party IT issue had limited impact on Absa customer services … The issue is well contained currently,” Absa Group, which also operates across Africa, said in an emailed response to questions.
With airlines, state-owned South African Airways said in a post on X that it was experiencing an intermittent technical outage at its contact centre, meaning that customers contacting the airline for new bookings, changes, or ancillary purchases will experience a longer hold time.
At the same time, global reports of service disruptions affecting multiple businesses hit local and international media outlets. One article, by US technology website The Verge, said thousands of Windows machines were experiencing a “blue screen of death” at boot, impacting businesses worldwide. A faulty update in cybersecurity software from vendor CrowdStrike was identified as the cause of the disruption. Capitec has confirmed that the disruption to its services was also due to issues with CrowdStrike software.
Privately-owned regional airline, Airlink also informed its customers in a post on X that despite the outage, which affected its entire IT network, including telephone lines, its flights are running on schedule. “Our systems are up and running again,” it said in an update.
Customers of Fly Safair were struggling to pay for flights with their bank cards on its website, with the low-cost airline responding on X that “we are currently having payment issues due to the Microsoft outage. “Airports Company South Africa, which owns and operates South Africa’s nine principal airports, said in a statement that it does not use CrowdStrike services and therefore its “airport network remains unaffected by this outage with operations running as normal”.
‘Significant disruptions’
“Capitec experienced significant disruptions across all our banking channels today due to a global downtime incident involving CrowdStrike, a key technology service provider. We recognise the inconvenience this has caused and wish to provide clarity and assurance to our valued clients,” Capitec said in a statement. The disruptions affected services across all Capitec systems and channels, including online banking, mobile app transactions and card payments. The bank confirmed that card, ATM and banking app services have been restored and are now fully accessible to customers. Work to restore other services, including online banking, is ongoing, it said.