By Ed Monk and Sean Poulter
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The computer meltdown at NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, which left millions unable to access their salaries, could stretch into next week it emerged today.
Up to 12 million NatWest and RBS customers may be unable to receive money or pay bills over the weekend because of a major technical fault.
The bank has resolved the 'underlying problem' and is dealing with a huge backlog of transactions that have not gone through. It may take until early next week to catch up.
Disruption: Natwest customers reported problems with the bank's online services
The systems disaster, which the company now says began on Tuesday, meant that payments due to be made on Wednesday night, ready for Thursday, did not appear in account balances.
As a result, some customers were blocked from taking money out of cash machines, while others had internet supermarket food deliveries stopped after payments were rejected.
Some people could not use debit cards at tills, including hotel check-out desks, airports and petrol stations.
Some customers were able to access their money by 4pm yesterday but problems have persisted and customers continued to report being unable to access their cash this morning. It is unclear whether the problem that stopped payments due on Wednesday night have also blocked payments due for last night.
A statement on a NatWest feedback website said today: '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.'
The company also confirmed the problems were not the resul t of an external attack on its systems.
RBS, which conducts retail banking under the NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and UlsterBank brands, kept 1,000 of its branches open until 7pm last night to let people take out some money, and opened them earlier today, in order to assist customers.
At 8am today, an RBS spokesman said the bank was preparing a new statement to update customers.
Anger: A NatWest feedback website showed customers continuing to report being unable to access their money at 8am on Friday.
There was confusion yesterday with customers reporting problems that were not connected to payments not being made.
For example, staff in one branch in West London told customers they should only use the bank's own ATMs to guarantee being able to get money out. The branch had closed its doors with only two members of staff outside telling customers that they would not know until tomorrow when services would be restored.
WAS NATWEST'S NEW MOBILE PAYMENTS GIZMO TO BLAME?
Last Wednesday, NatWest heralded a leap forward for its mobile phone payment technology.
It launched a system - GetCash - that would allow people to take cash from an ATM without using their cash card, by making a request on their handset.
They are sent a six digit pin number, after making the request, which can be entered at a cash machine.
The aim, the bank said, was to help people who may have lost or forgotten their card or those who want to leave their wallet at home.
It was made available to around two and-a-half million customers who already have the banking app on their phone - on iPhone, Android or BlackBerry Smartphones, and on the iPad.
The launch comment from Ben Green, head of mobile at NatWest and RBS, well now have a sense or irony: 'We've heard countl ess stories from customers who've left their wallet behind, or parents who need a quick way to send money across to their children immediately.'
Elsewhere, customer were so alarmed yesterday that they queued at branches to insist that staff hand over all the cash in their current accounts.
After hours of silence, the bank issued a message on its website in mid-afternoon stating: ‘This is an unacceptable inconvenience for our customers for which we apologise.’
There are fears that many thousands of customers could be hit with penalty charges because regular standing orders and direct debits, including rent and mortgage payments, were also affected.
Some are worried they could lose family holidays because the final instalment of their payments were not transferred as expected. House purchase transfer payments were also stalled by the computer failure.
The collapse triggered a string of comment on Twitter from customers, with some suggesting the NatWest debacle would be similar to the meltdown predicted for Greece if the country crashed out of the euro.
Mother-of-two Lisa Browne, who was sick and off work, tried to get Tesco to deliver a weekly food shop to her home so she could feed her children. However, the store called to say it would not accept the order because her NatWest bank card had been declined.
The weekly paid admin worker, who lives in the Midlands, was relying on her salary going into her account to keep her in credit. She said: ‘I am really annoyed. My worry is what is going to happen with the direct debits that are supposed to be going out?’
The first customers knew of a problem was when their cards were rejected at tills and ATMs. NatWest put a message on its website in the morning which read: ‘We are currently experiencing technical issues which mean that a number of customer account balances have not yet been updated and some of our online services are temporarily unavailable.’
Student Kora-Lee Holmes, from Hull, sent a tweet saying she had been blocked from checking out of a hotel in Italy and so had missed her flight home. She posted: ‘Missed my flight home from Venice because NatWest’s server problems…New flights = £200.’
Customers finally began reporting that their accounts were back up and running, including salary credits, at around 4pm.
NatWest, which has 7.5million personal banking customers, is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group, and is 80 per cent owned by the taxpayer. The bank pledged that no customer would be out of pocket as a result of the ‘technical’ problems.
'More problems ahead for all British banks'
Last week, RBS-NatWest launched a mobile banking app that lets people to withdraw money from cash machines using their smartphone.
It is the latest bank to offer such technology as the industry moves towards making smartphones digital wallets.
But the rush to offer new technology may come at a price.
Experts warned that customers of UK banks would increasingly face such problems because of the rush to deliver new and evermore sophisticated services.
Daoud Fakhri, senior analyst at consultancy Datamonitor Financial Services, said: ‘This episode is emblematic of wider problems facing the banking sector as a whole.
'Many providers, being early adopters of IT systems when the technology was still in its infancy, have been left saddled with inflexible core systems that are often several decades old, and that are increasingly unable to cope with the demands being placed on them.
‘The growing expectations of consumers around online and mobile banking means that the tensions between the provision of ever more sophisticated services and the capability of core systems to satisfy these demands are close to breaking point, and this increases the likelihood of episodes such as the NatWest mishap happening again.’
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Nat West had a "glitch" on the 5 November, 2011 as well. Pathetic, when you think of all the bonuses the board get. Sort it out, and at least be honest as to what the "glitch" is. Sorry, the word honest and banks don't go hand in Hand
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Nat West had a "glitch" on the 5 November, 2011 as well. Pathetic, when you think of all the bonuses the board get. Sort it out, and at least be honest as to what the "glitch" is. Sorry, the word honest and banks don't go hand in Hand
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If my salary was late going in and I defaulted on paying direct debits/standing orders- would the bank be understanding? Errrr no! They'd slap a £38 unpaid item fee on me! Why don't we have the powers to do the same to them? They're not doing us any favours- when will banks learn that they need customers more than we need their (ahem) 'services?'
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WOW, won't be fixed until sometime next week, it sounds like a catastrophic problem, this is where outsourcing falls down, all the expertise have been made redundant and the Indians will be running around like headless chickens, not knowing their 4rse from their elbow. Still look on the bright side the RBS accountants have saved millions off the bottom line. So glad I bank at First Direct, 17 years with them and not one grievance to bear.
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as sure as night follows day, my mortgage payment, with Natwest will be taken on time and without any delay
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The entire executive board should be thrown out on their ears and made to personally recompense everyone who loses out. Considering the obscene salaries these people are on, it is not unreasonable to expect these people hould have forseen this or a similar disaster and had contingency measures in place. They have failed in gargantuan proprtions and should not be allowed such positions ever again, instead they will probably get a binus which is in excess of the average Joe's salary for ten years. In this day and age it is unacceptable and for the record, Doesn't matter how many apologies Nat West / RBS make, apologies do not pay mortgages, bills or buy food.
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Everyone saying they're switching banks - what bank do YOU know that is totally flawless? They all have problems and in a few months it will be someone else having difficulties. You're just jumping from one sinking ship to another.
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Next they'll be outsourcing the MoD,MI5 and MI6 to India
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Natwest AND RBS must reassure their customers about is this: Unpaid accounts can lead to £12 'fines' and the withdrawal of credit if direct debits are not paid. The banks MUST deal with this and pay the fines and restore credibility if removed through no fault of their own. SO BANKS! Are you going to do that?. I will insist on it!
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All customers should be compensated for the inconvenience.
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