KUALA LUMPUR (June 26): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) may take supervisory actions and impose penalties for violations of regulatory provisions under its supervision, following recent incidents of online banking service outages.

Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying said the appropriate follow-up actions, as provided under the Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA) and the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (IFSA), would depend on an assessment of the root cause and impact of the disruptions from the affected institutions.

"Regarding recent incidents of online services outages, BNM has taken immediate actions to instruct the banking institutions involved to determine the root cause of the disruptions, and subsequently set appropriate corrective and preventive measures to avoid a recurrence of similar issues.

"In addition, the banks have been instructed to communicate with the affected customers, including responding immediately to any complaints and inquiries caused by the disruptions," she said during a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

She was replying to a question from Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (Barisan Nasional-Ayer Hitam) about the government's view on the issue of frequent online service outages by banking institutions, and to what extent the government is prepared to impose penalties following recurring disruptions to the detriment of consumers. 

Furthermore, Lim said BNM is closely monitoring the situation to ensure that the banking institutions involved restore normal banking services as soon as possible. 

Under the FSA 2013 and the IFSA 2013, BNM has the authority to impose supervisory and enforcement actions against financial institutions found to be non-compliant with any provision of the relevant policy documents.

This includes the failure to ensure that critical systems experiencing unplanned downtime and affecting service access to customers do not exceed the maximum tolerable downtime.

Meanwhile, in reply to Wee's supplementary question about the challenges facing e-payment transactions, Lim said that e-payment transactions are immediate, but for holidays and Sundays, they will be floated until the next business day.  

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