Major Canadian banks fell unavailable for several hours, denying consumers access to e-transfers, online and mobile banking, and other services.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) are among the institutions apparently affected by the outage (CIBC).

For many, online banking and e-Transfers are not working.
Yesterday, the main banks in Canada went offline, making it difficult for many people to access e-Transfers, online, and mobile banking services.

The number of reports of people experiencing problems accessing their online banking peaked on Wednesday between 5 and 6 p.m. Eastern time, while BleepingComputer is still receiving an influx of these reports today:

An RBC spokesman acknowledged that “we are currently having technical challenges with our online and mobile banking, as well as our phone services.”

“We have no ETA to offer at this time, but our specialists are looking into it and striving to fix it as soon as they can. We value your tolerance.”

Customers continued to report problems a few hours later, within 30 minutes of RBC declaring that all systems were operating normally:

Andrew Currie, an RBC client, stated that the disruption left him without “access to my money at the grocery store” and forced him to wait in line for the cash register for 30 minutes.

Customers of BMO also noticed that the bank’s “Global Money Transfer service” was unavailable “all day” and that transfers were being automatically denied without any apparent cause. Such customers were advised to contact customer care by a BMO representative.

Inconsistencies with their internet banking were not acknowledged by CIBC.

Customers were apparently locked out of the TD Bank mobile banking app, and customer support agents said they “haven’t been told of recent concerns with our online service through EasyWeb.”

According to a TD Bank representative speaking to BleepingComputer, the bank had no significant system issues or outages.

It’s unclear at this moment whether some people’s difficulties at the ATMs were caused by the outage. According to an RBC staffer, the customer experiencing ATM problems is using an old debit card:

Some transfers are subject to rules under the Emergencies Act.

Although the reason for the outage is unknown, its timing is very intriguing because it comes only a few days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the Emergencies Act in the midst of ongoing “Freedom Convoy” rallies.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland detailed the new rules that payment service providers must follow in accordance with the recently implemented Emergencies Act on Monday during a press briefing on Parliament Hill.

Additionally, without a court ruling and without risking civil liability, the Emergencies Act gives banks the power to freeze the accounts of people and companies they believe to be connected to the illegal blockades.

However, as the Deputy PM notes, since banks are currently required to report to FINTRAC, it is still unclear how new legislation will cause a planned or unanticipated outage.

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