Strengthening Financial Resilience: Lessons from the Fiserv Outage

By Patrick Morin May 7, 2025

The recent Fiserv outage on May 2, 2025, which disrupted key banking services, has shed light on the critical need for financial institutions to bolster their contingency planning. This incident affected the infrastructure of the connections between the core banking platforms and adopted applications for multiple banks, leading to service disruptions in peer-to-peer payment systems like Zelle. The outage, and its cause being outside of the bank customer controls, underscored the importance of having robust backup systems and clear communication strategies in place to manage such crises effectively.

Provider Agreements

To mitigate such risks, banks should consider agreements with alternate providers, such as Jack Henry or FIS. These partnerships can offer a backup for critical services, allowing for a seamless switch in case of an outage. This redundancy is vital for maintaining service continuity and ensuring that customers can continue to access essential banking services without interruption. For certain banks, however, the maintenance of an alternate agreement could prove cost prohibitive.  In such cases, banks may rely more heavily on communication strategies and alternative solutions.

Communication Strategies

Clear communication during an outage is crucial. As part of its incident response procedures, banks should prepare templates for rapid dissemination via email, SMS, and social media. These communications might include status updates, expected resolution times, and guidance on alternative solutions. For example, instructing customers on how to use mobile banking apps or recommending alternative payment options like Venmo, PayPal, or Square Cash. Effective communication can help manage customer expectations and reduce frustration during service disruptions. Annually, during incident response plan testing, these communication strategies should be included as part of the testing process.

Alternative Solutions

Banks that are not able to maintain an alternate provider can offer additional support by providing access to financial tools that remain operational during outages. Encouraging the use of mobile banking apps for account monitoring and transactions can help customers manage their finances even when traditional services are affected. Additionally, banks can explore innovative solutions such as blockchain technology to enhance the resilience of their financial systems.

In conclusion, the Fiserv outage serves as a wake-up call for financial institutions to strengthen their contingency planning and communication strategies. By establishing provider agreements, preparing clear communication templates, and offering alternative solutions, banks can build a resilient framework that can withstand service disruptions and ensure continuity for their customers.