ANZ, Westpac, CommBank app outage leaves customers short, as Virgin also affected

ANZ, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank customers have been hit by a mobile app outage, with Virgin Australia also affected.

Customers from some of Australia’s major banks and airlines were unable to access their accounts through mobile apps on Thursday afternoon, causing havoc at check-outs across the country.

Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac customers were affected by an outage and could not log into their accounts.

A Commonwealth Bank media spokeswoman said they were trying to resolve the issue but were unsure when it would be corrected.

“It’s an issue that is not affecting just CommBank but also other financial institutions,” a spokesman told NCA NewsWire.

“We are working to rectify it.”

We’re aware some of our customers have experienced problems accessing our services.

We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through resolving the issue.

We’ll continue to keep you updated here.

— Westpac Bank (@Westpac) June 17, 2021

A Westpac spokeswoman said it was a “third party” issue and they became aware of the problem this afternoon.

“We are working hard to get it back online and we apologise for the inconvenience,” they said.

Westpac called on customers to be patient.

“We’re aware some of our customers have experienced problems accessing our services,” they tweeted.

“We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through resolving the issue.”

The bank later provided an update, saying services were “back up and running”.

“We thank you for your patience,” Westpac tweeted.

Update: services are now back up and running. We thank you for your patience. https://t.co/QS0ihqFPav

— Westpac Bank (@Westpac) June 17, 2021

The same problem with content delivery network provider Akamai also affected St George Bank, which is owned by Westpac.

A content delivery network is a platform of servers that helps minimise delays in loading websites by reducing physical distance.

Virgin Australia said in a statement that it too had been affected by an IT outage, but it had since been resolved.

“Our website and guest contact centres are operating as usual,” a spokesman said.

“Flights are largely operating as scheduled and we apologise to any guest who has been inconvenienced.

“Virgin Australia was one of many organisations to experience an outage with the Akamai content delivery system today, and we are working with them to ensure that necessary measures are taken to prevent these outages from reoccurring.”

The outage was not only affecting customers, but also retailers.

“EFTOPS Merchant, Netbank and App are all down,” one man wrote.

EFTOPS Merchant, Netbank and App are all down.

— James (@Jwarne) June 17, 2021

Frustrated customers took to Twitter begging for information as to when they would again be able to access their money.

“What is the ETA?! This is ridiculous!, wrote Lauren.

What is the ETA?! This is ridiculous!

— Lauren (@linnen79) June 17, 2021

As for Luke, hes bailed-up at a KFC.

Not happy guys, kfc won’t let me take my zinger box without payment. I’m currently waiting in the drive thru as we speak!

— Luke Bussoletti (@LukeBussoletti1) June 17, 2021

Journalist Heath Parkes-Hupton had to rely on the honesty system at his local barbershop after his banking app failed.

Anyone else also part of the great @CommBank app crash of 2021? Just had to sheepishly leave my local barber promising I’ll be back to pay

— Heath Parkes-Hupton (@heath_parkes) June 17, 2021

The Commonwealth Bank also responded to a tweet from tech guru Trevor Long who wrote about the problem online.

We’re aware some of you are experiencing difficulties accessing our services and we’re urgently investigating. We apologise and thanks for your patience, we’ll provide an update soon

— CommBank (@CommBank) June 17, 2021

Mr Long suggested there may be a couple of reasons for the outage although he conceded it was only an educated guess.

“For those wondering. I can think of a couple of “causes” at this time (given we know NOTHING at this stage),” he wrote.

“1/ Denial of Service Attack (Cyber Attack) on individual sites

“2/ Shared service provider outage (likely a DNS host or similar).”

For those wondering. I can think of a couple of "causes" at this time (given we know NOTHING at this stage)

1/ Denial of Service Attack (Cyber Attack) on individual sites
2/ Shared service provider outage (likely a DNS host or similar)

Open to other theories.

— Trevor Long (@trevorlong) June 17, 2021