By ETT 
On July 19, 2022, Capital One Financial Corporation (Capital One) announced that it had resolved the extensive technical outage that had disrupted its banking services for several days. The outage, which began on July 17, 2022, affected millions of customers, leaving them unable to access their accounts, make online payments, or use ATMs.
The outage resulted in widespread inconvenience and frustration for Capital One’s customers. Customers were unable to:
The outage also had an impact on Capital One’s business operations. Employees were unable to access customer accounts or process transactions, impacting loan applications, account maintenance, and other services.
Capital One initially attributed the outage to a software upgrade that had inadvertently introduced a technical issue. Subsequent investigation revealed that the issue stemmed from a problem with a third-party cloud computing provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS). A data center equipment failure at AWS caused a network connectivity disruption, which in turn affected Capital One’s systems.
On July 19, 2022, Capital One announced that it had resolved the technical issue in collaboration with AWS. The company stated that all banking services were fully restored and that customers could now access their accounts and conduct transactions as usual. The outage had lasted approximately 48 hours.
The Capital One banking outage sparked diverse reactions and perspectives:
The Capital One banking outage raises several critical issues:
The Capital One banking outage was a complex and disruptive event that affected millions of customers and raised important issues regarding cloud dependency, risk management, and customer communication. While Capital One has resolved the outage and restored services, the broader implications of the incident will continue to be examined by industry experts and regulators. Financial institutions must learn from this outage and invest in robust infrastructure, risk management practices, and effective customer communication to minimize the impact of future disruptions.
