Power surge disrupts StanChart ATM and online banking services

Standard Chartered customers experienced service disruptions on Tuesday and part of Wednesday attributed to a power surge at its head office system servers in Nairobi.

The bank’s automated teller machines, mobile and online banking as well as credit card services went offline until 10pm on Tuesday night, with intermittent interruptions Wednesday morning but were restored by the afternoon.

An electricity pole carrying power to the bank’s Chiromo headquarters was on Tuesday morning knocked down by a bus, resulting in the surge which affected its core systems.

“We experienced power fluctuation at our Chiromo head office as a result of a road accident on Westlands road at 8am on Tuesday,” said Lamin Manjang, Standard Chartered chief executive for Kenya and East Africa.

Cash withdrawal and deposit at the branches as well as services that involved accessing the main database such as amendments to standing orders or opening of new accounts were also affected.

“The switchover to generators caused a subsequent tripping to breakers on the distribution board with the earth circuit breakers. We were still experiencing some system downtime on some services at the branches early Wednesday,” he said.

StanChart Kenya hit the Sh10 billion after-tax profit mark for the first time last year partly boosted by property sales to hold on to its ranking as the third-most-profitable lender in the country.

The bank reported a net profit of Sh10.4 billion for the year ended December compared to Sh9.2 billion in 2013.

Corporate and institutional business was the key driver of the company performance, recording a 17 per cent growth in operating profits from this segment to Sh9.9 billion.

Co-op Bank has been closing in on its third position but StanChart managed to secure its position last year, behind local lenders Equity and KCB Group.