08 January 2010 News

 

Mainframe failure at HSBC takes down electronic channels

HSBC has confirmed that a mainframe failure at 1200 GMT today caused a failure of the ATM network and online banking for its retail division, with other systems possibly hit.

A spokesman confirmed that ATMs were down for one hour and that internet banking was affected for two hours.

Although he was not able to say whether any other systems were affected or not, he did confirm that all systems were back up and running within 2 hours of the failure and that an investigation was underway to determine the cause and full extent of the crash.

According to specialist IT firm Erudine, similar problems could affect any number of financial institutions on a much bigger scale, due to the use of legacy systems, but it warns that little is being done to address the risk.

Martin Rice, chief executive of Erudine, believes this should be a wakeup call for anyone who had hoped their IT would simply keep working: "For a staggering number of institutions, the approach to the risk of legacy systems has been akin to sticking their head in the sand. Absolutely critical systems across the world, in banks and governments, are at breaking point, but the traditional technology that was used to build them does not have a solution to the problem. There are alternative approaches, but many incumbent suppliers have a vested interest in the status quo and do not want to innovate."