Japanese banks crippled by clearing system outage

[bernorange 8359]

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2023/10/10/companies/japan-banking-system-glitch/

Ouch.

[Blotto 23484]

[bernorange 8359]

Quote

Restoration work for Japan's payment clearing network was completed Thursday morning, two days after a system failure disrupted fund transfers at 11 banks, its operator said.

Among the 11 banks, MUFG Bank said the same day that its transaction service had returned to normal.

Over 5 million transactions were affected, with transfers via automated teller machines, online banking and bank counters all delayed.

The system failure of Japanese Banks' Payment Clearing Network has affected child allowance payments in some municipalities and delayed insurance payouts by some firms.

According to the Japanese Bankers Association, it is the first time customers have been impacted by a system problem since the network was launched in 1973.

The issue was detected on Tuesday morning following a system update carried out during the three-day weekend. A glitch in a computer system that relays transaction data between financial institutions and the clearing network caused the disruption, the operator said.

Most Japanese banks are connected to the key payment network, known as the Zengin system, which processes an average 6.5 million transactions and over ¥12 trillion ($81 billion) a day.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2023/10/12/companies/payment-network-diruption-restored/

Zengin processes 6.5 million transactions a day.  It was not working for two days.  They say it "affected" 5 million transactions.  I'm pretty sure 6.5m x 2 <> 5m.

How crippling would it be if the ACH system went down?  I assume that is our equivalent to Japan's Zengin system.

[Wally Fairway 5539]

[Captainant 27618]

Japan seems like a ticking time bomb of technical debt and a bunch of over-promoted company men who don't know know what they're doing. Hell it was a big story in 2018 that their minister of cyber security had never even used a computer ! 

As more old folks age out, their tribal knowledge of how to maintain the old systems goes with them. I've seen it happen at every sufficiently large and old organization that I've worked with that still has a business critical mainframe somewhere 

[Blotto 23484]

19 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Japan seems like a ticking time bomb of technical debt and a bunch of over-promoted company men who don't know know what they're doing. Hell it was a big story in 2018 that their minister of cyber security had never even used a computer ! 

Advantage USA

[Macanudo 12974]

2 hours ago, Captainant said:

Japan seems like a ticking time bomb of technical debt and a bunch of over-promoted company men who don't know know what they're doing. Hell it was a big story in 2018 that their minister of cyber security had never even used a computer ! 

As more old folks age out, their tribal knowledge of how to maintain the old systems goes with them. I've seen it happen at every sufficiently large and old organization that I've worked with that still has a business critical mainframe somewhere 

You just described most of the world's economy.