Commonwealth Bank systems hit by hours-long outage

Commonwealth Bank customers are being impacted by a sizable digital systems outage that is affecting access to banking services and payments.

“We're aware some customers are experiencing difficulties accessing some of our services and we are urgently investigating,” the bank said in a statement.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.”

The bank said that its call centres were “experiencing high volumes of customer enquiries … due to this incident” and warned of wait times.

The bank said that its branches “are open but there may be delays as we serve other customers”.

It added that branch staff “will not have further information” regarding the bank’s problems, the root cause of which is not clear.

However, customers that had visited a branch said they were being advised that the problems may not clear until the afternoon.

Many customers reported that their bank balances were showing as $0, and that they were unable to make transfers or pay for goods and services.

Others said their established direct debits from accounts had also declined.

The bank’s Facebook channel - where the most up-to-date information on the outage has so far been shared - had a number of posts from users overseas whose payments for accommodation or other travel services had been declined.

Some customers said that services briefly recovered around 10.30am, but those who made use of the brief availability window found that payments or transfers did not complete.

Update, 4.00pm: CBA said that it had identified the root cause and is bringing service back online, although there would still be a backlog of payments to process.