Banking services restored after thousands of customers hit by Westpac outage

Westpac’s internet banking services have been restored after thousands of customers were unable to access their accounts on Wednesday afternoon.

The outage, which hit customers around 12.30pm, affected eftpos terminals and online banking across Australia, including through apps or other browsers.

At 4.30pm, Westpac confirmed the outage had been restored. “Our retail and mobile banking services have now been restored, and EFTPOS payments are working as usual,” a spokesperson said.

“We are working to resolve any remaining issues affecting our business clients and apologise for the inconvenience.”

Westpac warned urged customers to be vigilant as some scammers may be trying to impersonate bank employees offering help.

Earlier in the day, Westpac confirmed the bank was aware “some customers are experiencing intermittent issues accessing banking services”.

“We’re working to restore services as quickly as possible and apologise to customers for the inconvenience,” a spokesperson said.

Customers at Westpac and Westpac-owned the Bank of Melbourne, St George Bank and Bank SA took to social media to express their frustration.

“I was just stuck at the servo,” one woman said. “I couldn’t pay via POS, can’t access app, had to go through browser, but then it wouldn’t let me confirm security via SMS or phone as I was trying to Pay ID the attendant, so that didn’t work. I tried an ATM, that didn’t work either.”