Citibank's computers down, blocking account info

Citibank's computers down, blocking account info

news.yahoo.com

Customers of New York City-based Citibank have lost access to much of their account information because of a computer outage.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Many of the troubled bank's clients haven't been able to retrieve account details online or by telephone since Tuesday afternoon. Others can access only parts of their account profiles.

Citibank telephone representatives say they don't know what caused the outage but technicians are working to fix it. They've been telling customers to call back after Wednesday morning.

A Citibank spokeswoman hasn't replied to a phone message or an e-mail sent after business hours.

Citibank is a division of Citigroup Inc., which is struggling to survive the global financial crisis with billions of dollars in aid from the government.

CitiBank computers are down and the Canadian stock exchange TSX are down... www.abovetopsecret.com...

something is going on



news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 17-12-2008 by warrenb]

Citibank as well???What the hell??
Coincidence??
It could just be a glitch as they do sometimes happen but TSX and citibank?

It has been in the news for sometime now that they have been working through their ranks and "cutting" back peoples credit lines and not even telling them. People where/are finding out when they went to use their cards that they didnt work.( I have 4 friends that this has happened to and they are VERY well off) Something tells me that perhaps they are trying to stop the colapse from becoming totally public. ie the people who believe nothings wrong arent going xmas shopping ( also dont forget that citi is worldwide, they arent just doing this here in the USA)
If you noticed also with the Canadian markets prob... it happened the day of and day after their PM said they where in big trouble.
Soo its come down to who's next....

reply to post by xoxo stacie


What exactly did Harper say in the past day about the global economy, could you plz link me to a source? TY

reply to post by flybynight


www.reuters.com...

TORONTO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in perhaps his bleakest comments yet on the global economy, said the future has become increasingly hard to read and conceded a depression could occur.

[edit on 17-12-2008 by warrenb]

What did Harper do b4 he was PM?Wasn't he an economist or something.I always thought he was a lawyer but someone recently said he was an economist.Is this true?If it is true then I truly think he is an idiot.

Although I hadn't worked at Citibank, I worked at a bank that had the CEO who left Citi. Having worked for MBNA, Bank of America, and JP Morgan, technology isn't a bank's strong suit. They only modify software when necessary due to cost. The most recent 'addition' was Office 2000, but often had to go back to termal emulation of DOS programs to dig up info on accounts.

This thread should be flagged onto the front page ASAP. There is definitely some bad ju-ju going on here. I looked around the other MSM news sites and se absolutely no mention of this story. I also looked at Marketwatch.com's list of Citi related articles & news briefs, nothing. The Marketwatch one was an eyebrow raiser for me because they make their living off telling investors EVERYTHING that comes across the wires about any given company, whether good news or bad. We're watching a coverup take place in front of our very eyes.

Maybe Citi has gone through whatever amount of funds they allocated for the holiday shopping season a little earlier than they expected and are trying to hold things together until after next Wednesday? They could be in a delay mode to try and desperately keep people from panicking before they planned on having them panic? Whatever the underlying issue, it most certainly is NOT a computer malfunction. Come on, these banks have double, triple, and even quadruple redundant systems in place, where they could lose an entire server and within minutes reboot their system to a backup server in another location. If that wasn't the case, any major power outage in New York would snare their entire operation... and we've never seen that happen despite the fact that NYC has experienced blackouts.

Makes me wonder if it had something to do with the Canadian buck going up more than 2 cents against US $ yesterday...........a trend?

reply to post by warrenb

citibank sold its german arm this week to a spanish (i think) bank..

People always look at me like I'm crazy when I say I don't have any credit cards and don't even have a bank account. At least I know where my money is.

People tell me I need credit cards to "build up good credit" but neither the government nor the financial institutions have "good credit" anymore.

Couple that with the recent Madoff Ponzi scam and I doubt the government could even get a major credit card if it were a person.

When you base your entire economy around finance, stock trading, debt trading and currency exchange then you have to expect a volatile economy.

To be fair, this could be just a glitch in the computer system. I remember I used to have an account at Commerce Bank (now TD bank lol) and one day I couldn't cash my check because their systems were down in my whole area, I went to two or three different branches and they all said the same thing. This was almost two years ago though.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
Come on, these banks have double, triple, and even quadruple redundant systems in place, where they could lose an entire server and within minutes reboot their system to a backup server in another location. If that wasn't the case, any major power outage in New York would snare their entire operation... and we've never seen that happen despite the fact that NYC has experienced blackouts.

Although they do have SCSI Servers in multiple locations, they're not as efficient on getting things back in a hurry. I remember telling clients to please call back for a few hours or sitting around wondering when systems would come online again. For a cable company or electric provider, it's in that company's best interest to have their power back online because they don't want to lose their customers or provide refunds. With banks, not so much.

star and flag.

it can be coincidence but when you have all of those little drops coming down in the same time it looks more like a sun is covered with the clouds.

Originally posted by Shadowflux
People always look at me like I'm crazy when I say I don't have any credit cards and don't even have a bank account. At least I know where my money is.

People tell me I need credit cards to "build up good credit" but neither the government nor the financial institutions have "good credit" anymore.

Credit is for people who have no money or need more money than they currently have on hand. If you've got the cash, no need to borrow merely on your word (credit).

[edit on 17-12-2008 by saint4God]

Another issue may be the announcement by Microsoft that they have a major issue with IE7? Could this be related and Citi has been attacked by hackers? ............The plot once again thickens!

reply to post by Shadowflux


I live the exact same way.I made it to 28 til I had to eventually go get ID.
Credit is an idiotic idea to me.It is an instant way to have a debt.Hmmmm sound familiar?
I feel alot more free with no cards or plastics(other then my bank card which I use 2 times a month.They made me) and banking and finance mean absolutely nothing to me.
I completely agree with you.

reply to post by saint4God


And if I don't have the cash I'm not going to buy whatever it is that costs more than I can afford. However, this would work out better if I got paid better

I find that the people who preach to me about "good credit" and "bad credit" really know little to nothing about how the economy works.

To me "good credit" is what I have with Joe at the corner deli. He's known me for 15 years or more so he knows I'll pay him back when I get the chance.

www.businessweek.com...
update

Originally posted by DrumsRfun
I live the exact same way.I made it to 28 til I had to eventually go get ID.
Credit is an idiotic idea to me.It is an instant way to have a debt.Hmmmm sound familiar?

Debt isn't a bad thing. Having more debt than you can reasonably pay is. Debt can provide a house to those who don't have the full sale price of a house, then pay it over the course of 30 years. Too much debt can cause a consumer to break their promise to pay and banks to lose money.