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Finance

Westpac branches still down after Australia-wide outage

The bank confirmed it is still experiencing technical issues impacting branch systems around Australia.
Written by Asha Barbaschow, Contributor

Westpac bank has confirmed that branches across Australia are still experiencing technical issues that have been plaguing its internal systems since Monday morning.

A spokesperson for Westpac told ZDNet the origin of the outage is still unknown, and that the bank is currently investigating the cause.

As a result of the nationwide outage, staff in branches are currently using manual processes to assist customers, Westpac said.

The bank said this also includes the processing of cash and cheque deposits, as well as other customer-facing tasks performed in person.

The bank confirmed, however, that customers can still do their banking via online and mobile, with ATMs and EFTPOS services also unaffected by the outage.

Westpac's internet banking, both online and via mobile, was suspended in November, with "intermittent issues" affecting transactions, balances, and its cardless cash withdrawal function, Get Cash.

At the time, Westpac took to Twitter to inform customers that their account balances may still not be showing correctly, urging account holders to avoid resubmitting payments.

"Please be assured that these transfers have been processed, but may take some time to be reflected in account balances," the bank posted.

"For this reason, please don't resubmit payments or transfers.

"We can confirm we will refund any fees incurred as a result of these errors."

The internet and mobile banking issues had been plaguing the bank for several days, with Westpac first commenting on the transaction delays two days prior.

For the 2016 financial year, Westpac reported AU$7.4 billion in after tax profit, representing a 7 percent drop year on year.

For the 12 months to September 30, 2016, Westpac spent AU$1.9 billion on technology-related expenses as part of its ongoing digital transformation.

At the time, the bank said its main focus over the 12-month period has been its "digital transformation", with the company telling shareholders it has been heavily investing in technology in a bid to improve customer experience as well as improving productivity and risk management within the organisation.

During this time, Westpac has continued with ongoing investment programs that saw the delivery of a number of technology developments, such as the ability for customers to connect directly with the bank's call centres via the mobile banking app.

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