On 19/08/2013, i.e just after
Sunday, Indian Overseas Bank customers experienced a major disruption
in service. This disruption was due to a severe technical glitch in its CBS
(Core Banking Software).
The customers were allowed
withdrawals based on 17/08/2013 i.e Saturday day-end balances.
In the recent past, this was the
first instance wherein a major Banks CBS was down for a full working day.
The present IOB CBS has been
developed in-house, and very recently, it has appointed Ernst & Young, as
consultants to freeze a new CBS software.
At the same time, it is also looking to monetize
its investments in the stand-alone CBS.
Reserve Bank of India had advised IOB to
shift to Oracle based CBS, as that would have helped in RBIs Automated Data
flow system.
By 20/08/2013, IOB customers could
withdraw monies based on their latest balance. However, it had a cascading
effect on clearing operations. It took another
2 days to stabilize clearing operations.
In today’s eBanking era, disruption
of CBS in any medium/major bank even for an hour creates havoc in the schedules
of its customers.
