Yahoo Finance Commonwealth Bank update after furious customers unable to access money in outage
Australia's largest bank says systems have been restored but there could still be a delay in payments.
The Commonwealth Bank’s Netbank app has been restored following an outage last night that left customers unable to access money, make payments or buy groceries while shopping at Woolworths.
The bank - Australia’s biggest - said on Tuesday it was “aware some customers may be encountering difficulties” and had launched an “urgent investigation” after thousands of customers could not access their online banking, account balances or mobile banking.
“We're sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for being patient with us,” the bank said as customers flooded X with complaints.
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“I just see my balance from 8:38 pm but can't pay anything and the page doesn't even let me log in. Pls [sic] fix asap as I need to pay bills,” one said.
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“Everything is down, can’t access my money, check balance or pay for groceries and your call centre are [sic] closed. Seriously come on,” said another.
One disgruntled customer even looped Woolworths in, asking if they could use an “IOU” because: “I can't access any of my own money, so I currently can't pay.”
Some said there had been no communication from the bank until about an hour into the outage, with CommBank starting to reply to individual complaints online about 10:00pm on Tuesday.
But the bank revealed at 1:10am on Wednesday that the situation had been resolved.
"Services are being restored," it said on social media. "We apologise to customers who encountered difficulties accessing some of our services this evening. The CommBank app and NetBank are now available. Customers may still experience some delays to payments."
Similar outages have intensified arguments about the dangers of Australians becoming too reliant on digital payments in the face of cash use declining.
This comes as CBA told Yahoo Finance a "fake screenshot" was circulating that claimed the bank was going completely cashless.
Many customers expressed their outrage over the screenshot - before realising it was fake - with one urging customers to “withdraw” their money from the bank and another calling for a “boycott”.
CBA has ruled out going cashless or phasing out ATMs completely but has closed 354 branches and 2,297 ATMs across the country in the last five years.
