[xtypo_dropcap]T[/xtypo_dropcap]he Federal Reserve’s wire transfer system went down in at least one part of the U.S. after midday on Oct. 14, and wasn’t operational by close of business, according to interviews with several bank officials and clients.
“When the Fed goes down, it has an impact on everyone,” said one employee of a Chicago bank, speaking to The Epoch Times anonymously as bank policies prohibit employees talking to the media. “This happened, but it doesn’t happen that often… it’s unusual,” he said.
Called FedWire, the Federal Reserve system handles billions of dollars in domestic and international transactions every day.
The system was working in the morning, “but by the afternoon sometime it went down… only the wire transfer system,” the employee said.
Yingqi Chen, an engineer who works in energy auditing in Illinois, tried to wire money with Freestar Bank in that state, and was told by a staffer that “the Fed is down” for wire transfers.
She went back to a Bank of America representative who made his own inquiries. He told The Epoch Times that he contacted that bank, as well as a TD Bank branch in Illinois, and that relevant staff in both cases told him that the Federal Reserve’s wire transfer system was down. “Two individual banks both told me that the Fed was down and not able to do wires,” he said, also on condition of anonymity.
The problem may not have been nationwide, however.
An employee of Texas State Bank said that his bank had not experienced problems with wiring money.
The Epoch Times contacted FedACH customer service personnel, but after a long pause the operator, Laura, said she was only authorized to speak to banking institutions.
The Epoch Times was unable to contact an official spokesperson for the Fed on the evening of Oct. 14.
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