On November 3, a glitch in one of the Federal Reserve's payment systems resulted in major U.S. banks being unable to process customer deposits. The Federal Reserve attributed the incident to a "processing issue" with the Automated Clearing House (ACH), a widely used payment processing network employed by banks and employers for depositing wages into employees' bank accounts. While reassuring that customer accounts were secure, the affected banks faced customer complaints about the inconvenience.
The Federal Reserve, which operates the ACH along with electronic payment networks, declared that all its services were fully restored by 4:44 PM UTC on the same day. However, some customers remained dissatisfied with the situation. For instance, a user named Des Imoto suggested that Bitcoin could be a solution to such issues, emphasizing that funds are not truly safe if they become inaccessible. Other customers questioned whether banks like Wells Fargo would compensate them for late fees, court costs, and other expenses incurred due to the disruption, as creditors and landlords often expect timely payments. Reports of outages from Bank of America started to surge around 11:00 AM UTC on November 3.
These reports reached their peak during a 15-minute interval at 4:00 PM UTC, with Bank of America registering 313 reports, while Chase and Wells Fargo saw similar surges in complaints, with 279 and 137 reports respectively. Notably, the Federal Reserve launched the FedNow system in July, enabling banks and money transfer services to facilitate instant payments without depending on the ACH network.
