When employees at JP Morgan arrived at work on June 14 they discovered a problem. All of them discovered a problem. Their e-mail system wasn't working, nor was their web site.
The cause of this complete shutdown was embarrassingly simple. The bank had neglected to pay its webservice registration fee to its site and e-mail provider, Network Solutions. The bill fell due in early May. Three bills were sent to JP Morgan, all them either ignored or misplaced. So Network Solutions did what any service provider does when not paid a debt: it pulled the plug.
It's an embarrassing incident for JP Morgan, the bank which has put itself at the forefront of the e-commerce revolution, creating LabMorgan as a separate unit whose raison d'être is to think of ways to cannibalize its existing businesses. It's also bad luck for the firm that it was singled out. A day later the head of e-commerce at another US investment bank admitted that it could have happened to any of them. "Of course it made us laugh, but the next thing I did was to make sure that our subscription was up to date. And I'm sure I wasn't the only one to do it."