RBA: virtual server upgrade knocked payments offline

The Reserve Bank of Australia has revealed that a software upgrade caused yesterday’s payment processing outage.

The outage affected all Australian banks.

The RBA said yesterday afternoon that a “system issue” impacted its fast settlement service (FSS) and the low value clearing and settlement services (LVCS and LVSS).

“An error occurred during a planned change to the software that manages the Reserve Bank’s virtual servers, which disrupted a number of production servers,” the bank said.

“As a result, the Reserve Bank Information & Transfer System (RITS) was unable to send or receive LVCS or LVSS files between 19:01 on October 12 and 00:34 on October 13.”

Settlement notifications normally sent to NPP participants were either delayed, or not sent, between 19.21 and 23.47 on October 13.

Deputy governor Michele Bullock apologised for the disruption.

"It was disappointing that this occurred and we recognise the impact this would have on people relying on the payments system," she said.

“I want to assure people that the Bank takes the stability of the payments infrastructure very seriously and will double its effort to ensure this does not happen again.”

Virtualisation has been part of the RBA's strategy since at least 2021. 

Late last year, the RBA issued an RFP for a system integrator to “replace and modernise the banking technology infrastructure components that are facing obsolescence”.

That program of work targeted “all BK [RBA Banking] infrastructure”, with the exception of the New Payments Platform, API gateway, IBM Sterling B2B integrator, and all third-party and direct connectivity with customers.