US banks are currently racing to recover from a significant computer outage that is causing widespread disruptions in financial transactions worldwide.
Customers from prominent banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are experiencing substantial and continuous outages. These issues have been confirmed by the network tracking service DownDetector.
Blue screens in all computers
This unprecedented outage has affected not only banks but also airlines and numerous other businesses. The disruption was triggered by the billion-dollar cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, whose software is used globally.
The issue resulted in the notorious “blue screen of death” failure on Windows computers. Microsoft has acknowledged the situation and is actively working to restore systems.
According to a statement from Microsoft, “Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”
Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft are collaborating intensively to offer technical guidance and support. Their joint efforts aim to ensure that all affected systems are safely brought back online as soon as possible.
Stay tuned for further updates as this situation develops. If you are a customer experiencing issues, rest assured that the teams involved are doing everything in their power to resolve the problem swiftly.
Recent reports indicate that customers at major US banks are experiencing significant login issues, online transfer difficulties, and problems with deposits.
Impact on Trading
This outage has not only affected regular banking operations but has also disrupted trading activities at JPMorgan Chase, as highlighted by the New York Times.
Employee Access Issues
“Employees at companies including JPMorgan Chase and Instinet, a brokerage firm owned by the Japanese bank Nomura, faced challenges in accessing their workstations,” according to anonymous sources familiar with the situation. This led to delays in trading as these firms scrambled to find workarounds,” the sources added.
Fortunately, the trading delays appear to have been resolved as of an hour ago.
Stock Market Impact
Although CrowdStrike has clarified that this issue is not the result of a hack and has since rolled out a fix, the outage caused the company’s stock to plummet by as much as 15% within a few hours. As of the time of publishing, the stock remains down by more than 11%.
