Following the problems experienced by First National Bank (FNB) customers yesterday, FNB CIO Raj Makanjee says all online operations are once again fully functional.
“Between 10.05am and 10.25am yesterday, we experienced a system software problem within our IBM system software components,” says Makanjee. “The crash was within our system software, and not the core FNB system.”
Makanjee explains that FNB has a mirror standing capability, which allows the bank to switch to a mirror process in the event of a crash. The bank switched to this mirror process from 10.25am onwards.
“This allowed for customers to still perform critical transactions - these include drawing money, point of sale transactions and transfers. We were, however, unable to issue statements, open accounts, or perform account maintenance tasks such as changing account details,” says Makanjee.
“I think that is where the confusion may have arisen, when some people were wanting to open an account or get a new card and were unable to do so.”
The problem was escalated to the highest levels of IBM, and Makanjee says the team was able to implement a work-around.
“Late yesterday evening, together with senior IBM technicians, we were able to get a work-around and we were able to complete all end-of-day processes.
“As of this morning, all our online operations are functioning as normal, and we have teams actively monitoring the system.
“IBM's most senior technicians are also analysing the root logs in order to establish what the problem was and how to avoid it from happening again. It is our utmost priority,” concludes Makanjee.
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