On August 15, 2007 the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) experienced a serious problem which caused system unavailability of its online banking and ATM functions. The bank denied the rumor that its system was hacked.

Customers experienced long delays in logging on to their online accounts, and the speed of personal banking transactions at counters and ATMs was also slow, according to Xinhua News.

The ICBC explained that it was the first day of the lower interest tax rate and was also the day for most companies and institutions to pay pensions and salaries through the banking system, which put the system under further stress.

All systems returned to normal later in the afternoon and ICBC apologized for the inconvenience.