DBS customers report duplicate card transactions; bank investigating, will make refunds by June 20

SINGAPORE — DBS bank said a payment processing glitch caused duplicate transactions on some of its debit and credit cards and that it will make refunds to customers by Sunday (June 20).

"The issue has been resolved and we would like to assure all customers that our systems remain safe, secure and uncompromised," a spokesperson from the bank said in a statement on Friday night.

"The automatic refund process is now underway and will be completed by this weekend. We apologise for any undue anxiety and inconvenience caused."

TODAY had asked DBS how many customers were affected but the bank did not provide the figure.

In response to TODAY's queries, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it takes a serious view of this incident.

"We expect all financial institutions to put in place processes to ensure the reliability of their IT systems and the effective delivery of financial services to their customers," an MAS spokesperson said.

"MAS has instructed DBS to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident and submit the report to MAS. Supervisory actions will be taken if the bank has fallen short of MAS’ expectations."

In an earlier Facebook post on Friday, Southeast Asia’s largest lender apologised to customers for the inconvenience. 

“Please be assured that any duplicated transactions will be refunded automatically by June 20.”

In a separate post on its banking portal, the bank said that it was investigating the matter so as to make refunds. 

Its statements came after irate customers took to Facebook to complain about a glitch in the lender’s banking services. 

Many said that they had been charged twice for debit and credit card transactions this week. 

Mr Gary Koh, 32, said that he was charged twice for groceries he bought from a supermarket on Wednesday, which cost about S$30. 

He was unaware of the duplicate transaction until he saw a Facebook post from a friend who wrote about his experience.

“I was shocked like many others,” said Mr Koh, a freelancer in the events industry.

He could not reach the bank for an answer, adding: “I hope DBS releases a transparent explanation.”

Healthcare worker Siti Mariam, 58, said that DBS charged her twice for a knee guard, which she bought from e-commerce site Lazada for S$53 on Thursday. 

She heard about the DBS glitch through a group chat on messaging application WhatsApp and discovered that the transaction showed up twice — once on Thursday and later on Friday. 

"I was thankful that my knee guard did not cost too much… other people who had larger transactions would have been more worried," she said.

Driver Mohamad Haziq Mohamad, 28, said that he was about to transfer money into another savings account when he noticed that his debit card account had a duplicate transaction of S$6.30. He bought a kebab from Jurong Point mall on Tuesday.

“I was surprised and found it weird that there was a double charge, as I knew that I made only one purchase and not two,” said Mr Haziq. 

He added: “I hope DBS improves from this incident and makes sure that these errors do not happen again.

“They should also be proactive in informing customers of these glitches through Facebook or other media outlets, and not wait for customers to request that such information be shared publicly.”

Another DBS customer Rae, 36, said that her bank balance fell into the red after she was charged twice for a S$2,000 transaction. 

"I trusted DBS enough to not give me glitches to handle payments, and hence, I just made a S$2,000 payment online (on Thursday), then this happens,” said Ms Rae, who works in tech support and declined to give her full name.

“How (can we) trust cashless transactions wholeheartedly? Now I want to go out and I have to resort to withdrawing from other banks because my spending account is in deficit.”