NatWest and RBS computer glitch stretches into third day
Up to 12 million NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland customers are still unable to pay bills or move money after a computer glitch left their accounts frozen for the third day running.By James Hall, Consumer Affairs Editor11:00AM BST 22 Jun 2012239 Comments
The banks, which are part of the taxpayer-owned RBS Group, said that "technical issues" with its computers meant that payments in or out of accounts had not been made since Wednesday.
In a statement this morning, RBS Group said: "Unfortunately we are once again experiencing technical issues with our systems and account balances have not updated properly overnight. This means where money has gone into a customers account, there may be a delay in it appearing on their balance.
"We can assure our customers that this problem is strictly of a technical nature and we continue to work hard to resolve this.
"We also recognise this is an unacceptable inconvenience for our customers, for which we apologise.
"Staff in our branches and at our call centres are ready and available to answer any questions and help where they can."
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Around 1,000 Natwest and 218 RBS branches opened an hour early this morning to deal with customer complaints.
The glitch, which also affected online banking services, has meant that workers have been left without their wages. The banks are giving money to some customers who were due cash but have not received it on a case-by-case basis, a spokesman said.
People also also facing fines for late payment of bills because the computer meltdown left them with insufficient funds to honour direct debit arrangements or direct debits payments were not made.
Consumer groups have called for customers to be compensated.
NatWest kept 1,000 branches open until 7pm yesterday to deal with customers' complaints. The problem also affected over 100,000 customers at Northern Ireland's Ulster Bank, which is also owned by RBS Group.
The banking group said that its technicians are investigating the causes of the problems.
Sarah Brooks, director of financial services at Consumer Focus, said: "We hope that the problem will be resolved quickly and doesn't happen again. Natwest and Royal Bank of Scotland should also look at providing appropriate compensation to any customer who loses out because of this failure."
Problems with the group's computers meant that people who were relying on money being paid into their accounts, such as wages, were unable to access this cash.
The move left many customers helpless and angry.
Peter Hurst, a NatWest customer who could not access his money, told The Daily Telegraph: "It's all a bit Greek. What effect this will have on the economy, God only knows. You expect this in the third world but not in London, the so-called business capital of the world."
Meanwhile a customer called Kora-Lee Holmes told Twitter: "Missed my flight home from Greece because NatWest's server problems mean I can't check out of my hotel. New flights (cost) £200."
Megan Batterbee, another customer, said: "Don't worry, it's not like I need to buy food anyway. I've got four pounds to last me as long as this stupid glitch does."
A saver called JustABC told the social networking site: "My balance is reading £0.00 available, so what have you done with my pay? Now your online service isn't working. Unacceptable."
The technical fault did not affect people who had pre-existing sums of money in their accounts yesterday. The banks' ATM machines are still working and branches remain open.
The bank took to Twitter yesterday to apologise to its customers for the problem.
"We recognise this has caused significant inconvenience for our customers and has impacted many of our services. This is an unacceptible inconvenience for our customers for which we apologise," the bank Tweeted.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/9347515/NatWest-and-RBS-computer-glitch-stretches-into-third-day.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18548452
