Barran Press
The Unified Money Network (UNMONEY), a subsidiary of the Central Bank of Yemen in the temporary capital Aden, announced on Thursday, August 1, 2024, that it has resumed operations after a technical glitch caused a service outage.
The announcement was made in a statement released by the Central Bank of Yemen (Aden) on the X platform, seen by "Barran Press", which was attributed to the UNMONEY administration.
The network attributed the outage to a technical malfunction in its system, caused by a global outage of Microsoft services. UNMONEY stated that Microsoft Azure cloud computing is the primary provider of its network servers.
The network explained that the glitch severely impacted its information technology systems, disrupting communication between the agent server and the network database, and preventing users from accessing the agent system.
UNMONEY assured the public that the glitch did not affect the security of financial data. All transfer and financial transaction data remains securely stored, and the transfer system is functioning normally. There is no impact on financial operations, and all data is available for the last transaction completed.
The company apologized for the inconvenience, stating that the glitch was beyond its control, and expressed gratitude for the understanding of agents and customers during this period.
UNMONEY is a Yemeni joint-stock company operating under the supervision of the Central Bank in Aden. It was established to ensure the Central Bank's control over domestic financial transfers and to subject them to international compliance standards.
Previously, on June 26, 2024, the Central Bank Governor, Ahmed Ghaleb Al-Maabqi, issued a decision to completely and permanently cease operations of all domestic financial transfer networks owned by banks, financial institutions, or exchange companies operating in Yemen.
According to the decision, which was published on the Central Bank's official website, all banks, financial institutions, and exchange companies were required to settle pending transactions on their respective transfer networks within fifteen days from the date specified in Article 2 of the decision.
The decision mandated all exchange companies and transfer agents to execute all new domestic financial transfers exclusively through the Unified Money Transfer Network (UNMONEY) as of the date of the decision. The decision exempted networks owned by banks, which would continue to execute domestic transfers alongside the Unified Money Transfer Network until July 30, 2024.
On July 23, the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced an agreement between the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Houthi group, classified as a terrorist organization by several countries, on several de-escalation measures concerning the banking sector and Yemenia Airlines.
Grundberg's office stated that it received written text from both parties, including an agreement to "cancel recent decisions and measures against banks from both sides and to refrain from any similar decisions or measures in the future."
The Yemeni government subsequently welcomed the agreement, which was followed by an announcement of the resignation of the Central Bank Governor, which the government denied in a statement, affirming that he remains in office.