The electronic payment system used by the U.S. Federal Reserve bank to process transactions including home payments, mortgages and fundraising crashed Wednesday, sending ripples throughout U.S. financial markets, according to numerous reports.
Some services had been restored a little more than an hour after the problem was first reported, but many banking applications were still experiencing issues.
The payment processing system serves as the critical central framework of U.S. banking where billions of dollars flow daily, according to Reuters.
Due to the widespread outage, banks and other financial institutions such as credit unions and money transfer companies were unable to send or receive funds.
It was unclear what caused the quagmire, which occurred shortly before 1 p.m.
There were no initial reports of hacking or foul play.
By 2:15 p.m., the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond reported that an “operational error” caused the service outage and that technicians were working to fix the protocol.
The Federal Reserve said it was also investigating the disruption to multiple services. Fedwire and FedACH were among more than a dozen major business sectors that were affected, according to Reuters.
Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini also reported being affected by the blackout to the system known as Fedwire.
The Fedwire funds transfer system allows financial institutions to electronically transfer funds between more than 9,289 American financing institutions, according to a Federal Reserve website.
This is a breaking news development. Please stay with AJC.com for the latest details.
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