Commonwealth Bank’s payment processing systems have gone down Australia-wide, leaving tens of thousands of merchants unable to process transactions. Customers trying to make online payments have reported transaction timeouts, while CommBank has yet to acknowledge or explain the cause of the outage.
UPDATE 1:A CBA spokesperson has reached out to us, clarifying the ongoing outage is only affecting the bank's BPoint online payment platform.
"One of our suppliers is having technical issues and this is having an intermittent impact on some customers' ability to use this online payments portal. As a result some customers may be unable to process online payments via BPOINT.
We are working with the supplier to resolve this issue as a matter of priority."
Ironically, the disruption comes at the exact hour the bank announced an eye-watering half-yearly profit, despite repeatedly citing cost-of-living concerns for its customers.
It is understood while CBA’s overall banking services—including its app, NetBank, and credit and debit card transactions and merchant facilities —remain operational, the outage has disrupted BPoint online payments and APIs, affecting businesses reliant on it for their online payments.
The timing of the glitch has not gone unnoticed, with frustrated customers pointing out the contrast between CBA’s record profits and its inability to maintain stable payment services.
As of now, the bank has provided no timeline for a fix.
CBA reported a better-than-expected cash net profit after tax of $5.13 billion for the six months ending December 31—up from $5.02 billion a year earlier and exceeding market expectations of $5.06 billion.
CBA chief executive Matt Comyn credited the results to the bank’s ability to support customers and invest in its operations, despite broader economic challenges.
"Our consistent financial performance demonstrates our disciplined operational and strategic execution, and the bank’s deep customer relationships that help us understand needs and risks and deliver superior digital experiences," Comyn said.
The bank, which processes more than 20 million payments daily and holds a quarter of the country’s mortgage market, also reassured investors that its home-lending portfolio “remains well-secured” and that customers remain ahead on repayments despite economic pressures.
