Capitec Faces Major Outage Due To CrowdStrike Downtime

On Friday, 19 July 2024, Capitec experienced a significant outage that impacted all customer-facing services. The disruption was attributed to downtime at the cloud cybersecurity platform, CrowdStrike.

Downdetector, an outage tracking website, recorded a substantial surge in issues reported with Capitec’s services starting around 07:00. The majority of complaints were related to mobile banking, online banking, and ATM services.

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Numerous customers took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to voice their frustrations. Transactions were being declined, ATM services were non-functional, and the mobile banking app was inaccessible.

One user stated, “I’m held ransom at a filling station because payments are declining. Now I have to wait or leave my phone.”

Another customer complained, “What is up with your app? I can’t cash send or pay a beneficiary. Now the app says ‘no internet connection’ and refuses to open. Very frustrating.” Users attempting to access their accounts via the iOS mobile app were met with an error message: “Unable to process your selection, try again later.”

In response to the widespread issues, Capitec’s support team acknowledged the nationwide problems affecting all services.

“We are working hard to resolve this. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” the bank stated.

An SMS was sent to some customers, informing them that Capitec was aware of the issues and was addressing them. At 10:00 on Friday morning, Capitec confirmed that its card payments, ATM services, and digital channels were operational once again.

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Capitec’s previous major service outage occurred in August 2022 and lasted for several days. That incident was caused by an infrastructure issue in its central servers. In the current situation, Capitec reassured its clients that their bank accounts and personal data remained secure and unaffected by the incident.

“Client service remains our top priority, and we deeply regret the severe impact this disruption has had on your banking experience,” Capitec said. “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging time.”