U.S.-based money transfer giant MoneyGram has blamed an unspecified “cybersecurity issue” for an ongoing days-long outage affecting the company and its users.
In a post on X on Monday, MoneyGram said it had “identified a cybersecurity issue affecting certain of our [sic] systems.” The company previously said a “network outage” was the cause of the issue.
“Upon detection, we immediately launched an investigation and took protective steps to address it, including proactively taking systems offline which impacted network connectivity,” MoneyGram’s latest update reads. “We are working with leading external cybersecurity experts and coordinating with law enforcement.”
MoneyGram is the world’s second-largest money transfer provider, serving more than 50 million people in more than 200 countries and territories each year. MoneyGram says it processes more than $200 billion in transactions annually. In 2023, MoneyGram was purchased for $1 billion by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.
MoneyGram hasn’t confirmed the nature of the cybersecurity incident, nor has it said whether customer data is affected.
The incident began on Friday and appears to have broad impact the company’s operations. Customers are unable to make both in-person and online payments, and both the company’s website and app remain down at the time of publication.
MoneyGram spokespeople could not be reached for comment. TechCrunch received a bounce-back error stating our email could not be delivered.
The outage also appears to have affected MoneyGram partners around the world.
On Monday, the Bank of Jamaica said on Monday that “remittance companies that offer MoneyGram services in Jamaica are unable to access the MoneyGram platform to send remittances abroad or disburse remittance proceeds to recipients in Jamaica.” The U.K.’s Post Office, which offers MoneyGram services, also states on its website that, “For now, you can’t use MoneyGram services online or in branch, including online support.”
MoneyGram hasn’t yet said when it expects its services to resume. In a brief update on Tuesday, MoneyGram said it was making progress in restoring some of its key systems.
A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Financial Services, which in 2022 fined MoneyGram for anti-money laundering failures, told TechCrunch it is “closely monitoring the situation and our expert team engages with regulated entities as appropriate.”
Updated with comment from the NYDFS
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