MoneyGram, a major player in global money transfers, is facing a prolonged service outage caused by a “cybersecurity issue” that has disrupted its operations for several days. The U.S.-based company, which serves over 50 million people in more than 200 countries, has yet to provide full details of the incident but says it’s working to resolve the situation.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), MoneyGram acknowledged that it had identified a cybersecurity problem affecting some of its systems. Initially, the company had referred to the disruption as a “network outage.” According to their latest update, they launched an investigation as soon as the issue was detected and took immediate steps to safeguard their systems. As part of this process, MoneyGram proactively took certain systems offline, which has contributed to the ongoing disruption in service. The company has also enlisted external cybersecurity experts and is coordinating with law enforcement.
MoneyGram processes over $200 billion in transactions annually, making it the second-largest money transfer provider in the world. It was acquired in 2023 by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners in a deal valued at $1 billion. The company has not yet clarified whether customer data has been compromised or provided specific details about the nature of the cybersecurity incident.
The outage, which began on Friday, has had widespread effects, preventing customers from making payments both in-person and online. Additionally, MoneyGram’s website and app remain offline. The company has not provided an estimated time for full restoration of its services, although it said on Tuesday that progress is being made toward bringing key systems back online.
MoneyGram’s partners across the globe have also been impacted by the outage. For example, the Bank of Jamaica reported that remittance companies in Jamaica using MoneyGram’s services were unable to send or disburse remittances. Similarly, the U.K.’s Post Office informed customers that MoneyGram services are currently unavailable both online and in branches.
The New York State Department of Financial Services, which fined MoneyGram in 2022 for anti-money laundering compliance failures, stated that it is closely monitoring the situation. MoneyGram has assured customers it is working diligently to resolve the issue, though no timeline has been provided for when normal service will resume.
