According to Cointelegraph, some of the largest United States banks experienced difficulties facilitating customer deposits after the Federal Reserve's payment system suffered an outage on November 3. The Federal Reserve attributed the issue to a 'processing problem' in the Automated Clearing House (ACH), a payment processing network widely used by banks and employers to deposit wages into employee bank accounts. The ACH is operated by the Federal Reserve Banks and the Electronic Payment Network.
Banks emphasized that customer accounts 'remain secure,' and the Federal Reserve stated that all of its services resumed at 4:44 pm UTC time. However, customers continue to express frustration over the situation. Some users reported not receiving their payments, resulting in an inability to pay rent or other bills. A CNBC survey from September found that 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 58% in March.
Outage reports from US banks began to rise around 11 am UTC time on November 3. According to Downdetector, reports from Bank of America peaked at 313 across a 15-minute interval at 4:00 pm UTC time, while Chase and Wells Fargo reached similar peaks of 279 and 137 around the same timeframe. In July, the Federal Reserve launched FedNow, a service that allows banks and money transmitter services to make payments instantly without relying on the ACH.
