Aussies fume as Westpac’s online banking goes down overnight

Aussies have revealed they were left stranded at servos and grocery stores as a major bank with 13 million customers suffered a mass outage overnight.

Australians have shared their frustrations and horror stories following an overnight outage of Westpac’s online banking services.

The big four bank’s online banking service was impacted, and in many cases entirely inaccessible, between about 9pm Monday and 5am Tuesday morning.

Some customers said their accounts had “suddenly disappeared” when they logged into internet banking.

Others reported their accounts were showing a bank balance of $0.

There have been calls for compensation as some of Westpac’s 13 million customers took to internet forums overnight.

One parent said they were stranded at a service station because she was unable to shuffle money across her accounts to pay for fuel.

“Currently stranded on the side of the road with a screaming infant because we can’t get fuel without transferring money on the app that’s not working,” they exclaimed early Tuesday morning.

Westpac’s online banking services experienced an overnight outage, impacting its 13 million customers.

Customers expressed their frustration and horror stories on internet forums, with some calling for compensation.

Others recounted abandoning trolleys full of groceries for the same reason.

“Mind is blown – at the grocery store and no one could pay for their food,” Musician Matt Gresham told his Facebook followers.

Other customers took to the bank’s social media accounts, asking if they could expect any compensation from the outage.

A Western Australian business owner urged the company to: “Hurry up and fix it please”.

“I’ve got a business to run and payments to enter onto MYOB and I can’t without accessing my account,” she said.

Mobile and online banking services were restored and “running as usual” by about 5am, the bank confirmed in a post to X.

Westpac apologised for the inconvenience and thanked customers for their patience while it fixed the issue.

The bank confirmed that the cause was linked to a routine technology update on Monday evening. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

“We want to apologise to all our customers who were impacted by the issue overnight,” a spokesman said.

“We recognise this took too long to resolve and we thank customers for their patience.”

According to the bank, the cause was believed to be linked to a “routine technology update” on Monday evening.

Initially, users reported logging into the app to find a bank balance of zero dollars, missing accounts, and cards erased before a total inability to access the service.

Hobart City Councillor Louise Bloomfield described the shock of logging in to find her accounts empty.

“Went to check my balances – and no bank accounts in the online system,” she wrote.

“Could confirm on the old-fashioned dial-in version that everything is still there.

“I wouldn’t like to be Westpac right now.”

The incident comes amid a senate inquiry into bank closures. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

The outage has drawn criticism from the pro-cash community as Westpac and other major banks closed branches and reduced their numbers of ATMs.

Earlier this year, Westpac confirmed it had paused additional branch closures amid a Senate committee inquiry.

The inquiry, examining bank closures across regional Australia, recently heard from Adam Trevorrow from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), which found 2100 Aussie bank branches have closed across the country since 2017.

It also found ATMs across the country were reduced, with metropolitan areas suffering a 60 per cent decline.

A statement from Westpac’s Chief Information Officer Scott Collary provided to news.com.au did not address potential plans for compensation but further apologised for the outage.

“We recognise this caused disruption for our customers and apologise for the experience,” he said.

“We know how important it is to have 24/7 access to online banking.”

Mr Collary said during the course of the outage, payments via cards and digital wallets, scheduled payments and ATMs were not affected by the issue.

“The issue was caused by a routine technology update at around 9pm on Monday which meant customers were unable to view or access their Westpac accounts online. Our technicians identified the problem and worked through the night to fix it.”

Mr Collary urged customers with specific concerns as a result of the outage to contact the bank for assistance.

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