Commonwealth Bank shares hit by major outage. What do investors need to know?

Here's what investors need to know about the CBA outage.

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Key points
  • On Thursday, Commonwealth Bank experienced a major service outage affecting online banking, app services, and ATMs.
  • The outage ran from midday until 2:30 PM. 
  •  Despite the service disruption, CBA shares rose by 1.65%, outperforming the S&P/ASX 200 Index.

Commonwealth bank was hit by an outage on Thursday. 

Online banking services, including the app, were all taken offline for a period on Thursday afternoon.

Services were down from approximately midday, with the bank announcing the issue had been resolved at 2.30pm.

According to a report from The Australian, no information on what had caused the outage was made available.

Following the outage at midday, the bank released an announcement. 

"CommBank banking services, including payments, online access and ATMs are being restored," the bank said in an update on its website at 12.45 pm AEST.

"We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience."

At 2:30pm, CBA released another announcement on its website saying the issue had been fixed. 

"An issue today affecting some of our services has been fixed. CommBank banking services, including payments, online access and ATMs are working. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience."

The ABC reported that no branches were closed as a result of the outage.

Frustrated and shocked business woman reading bad news online from phone.

Image source: Getty Images

CBA stock price unaffected 

Despite the outage, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) surged ahead 1.65% yesterday. 

This was ahead of the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) which rose 1.13%. 

The CBA share price is now up almost 4% in the last week. 

This is despite many brokers still warning the stock price trading well above fair value. 

The Motley Fool's Bernd Struben reported yesterday that Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) was the weakest performer out of the big four banks in the month of September. 

It was down 2.0% over the month just past, trailing the ASX 200.

The other big four banks: 

  • ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) fell 1.4% over the month of September
  • Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) rose 0.9% over the month.
  • National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) rose 3.2%. 

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Bell has positions in National Australia Bank. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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