YouTrip’s services were fully restored for users in late afternoon on Oct 19 after a major outage disrupted services for hours.
The outage affected most of YouTrip’s services in both Singapore and Thailand, leaving users unable to top up accounts or exchange currencies, according to the e-wallet platform’s website.
As at 5.10pm, all the services affected by the outage were listed as operational.
In a media update at about 6.45pm, YouTrip confirmed that all its functions were “fully back up and operating as normal”.
It said the disruption was caused by a technical issue in a third-party vendor system.
“Following the resolution of the issue, our immediate priority remains the active monitoring of the vendor’s system stability to ensure reliable operations moving forward,” YouTrip said.
“We thank our community for their patience and understanding, and would like to reassure all users that their funds and accounts remain completely safe,” it added.
A spokesperson for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in response to media queries on Oct 19 that it was following up on the incident, with YouTrip required to investigate the root cause of the outage and fix vulnerabilities.
“Financial institutions are expected to maintain the availability and resilience of their key systems, and to minimise service disruptions and inconvenience to customers,” said the spokesperson.
“MAS takes such incidents seriously and will factor this into our ongoing supervision of YouTrip.”
As YouTrip is a payment services provider regulated under the Payment Services Act, it must comply with MAS technology risk guidelines, including ensuring its information technology systems meet standards commensurate with its business needs.
While the exact start time of the outage remains unclear, user reports on social media indicated transfers were failing as early as 8.40am.
A Facebook user, commenting at about 10.40am on a post on YouTrip’s social media page, said his transfer request had been pending for two hours.
Replying to the comment, YouTrip said its app was experiencing some “technical difficulties”.
As at noon, 19 of 23 services here – such as top-ups, in-app exchange, automated teller machine (ATM) withdrawals and digital wallet – were unavailable, according to its website. Only login, viewing of card details, sign-up and eSim services were available.
In Thailand, 11 of 14 services were unavailable as at 12.20pm, including wallet balance, top-ups and card transactions, according to its website. Only login, viewing of card details and sign-up services were available.
In a media reply at about 3.40pm, YouTrip said that most of its functions, including in-app currency exchange and top-up services, had been restored, adding that some users may experience intermittent issues with card payments.
“Resolving this for all our users remains our top priority, and we thank our community for their ongoing patience and kind understanding,” YouTrip said.
Checks on YouTrip’s Singapore and Thailand pages at 3.55pm showed that three services in both countries – card transactions, payment authentication and ATM withdrawals – were still experiencing “service degradation”.
Meanwhile, the platform’s services in Australia, some of which were previously marked as under maintenance, were updated to “operational”.
On Feb 24, some YouTrip users reported having their card transactions declined, only for them to be charged later on.
The fintech company said a day later that the issue had been resolved, and all payment functions had returned to normal since 9.08pm on Feb 24. THE STRAITS TIMES
