Scotiabank users facing 'intermittent' access to banking

A Scotiabank sign is shown on a shopping mall in Ottawa on Thursday, June 27, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press)

Scotiabank users say they are having issues using their bank’s services following a scheduled maintenance period that ended days ago.

On Nov. 8, a post appeared on a Scotiabank X account advising customers that "some credit card and line of credit services will be unavailable or have limited access” until Nov. 12.

On Wednesday afternoon, the day after that maintenance period was scheduled to end, another post appeared, acknowledging that “some systems have not been visible to clients across platforms, and some clients are experiencing intermittent access to some banking services.”

"Congrats you’re working on it, tomorrow [I'll] be working on closing my accounts with you guys,” wrote one X user.

Overlimit fees, credit card interest waived

In an email to CTVNews.ca, Scotiabank said it will proactively waive overlimit fees and credit card interest charges with payment due dates between Nov. 11-14, 2024.

“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused our clients,” reads the statement. “There has been no impact to card transactions at point of sale, online or in person.”

The company did not say when it expects service to resume.

“We are working diligently to restore all functionality as soon as possible,” reads the statement.

Downdetector, a third-party website that tracks online service outages, identified over a thousand problem reports during a peak on Thursday morning. The baseline for that period is just three reports, according to the platform.

Most reported problems referred to credit card, online banking, and mobile banking services, according to Downdetector.

This is the second service outage reported at Scotiabank in two months.

In late October, more than 2,000 customers reported issues affecting mobile logins, online banking and funds transfers in a disruption the bank confirmed was resolved later the same day.