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RBS and NatWest customers locked out in latest banking glitch RBS and Barclays asked to explain 'addition to litany of IT failures'
(about 7 hours later)
Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers were locked out of online and mobile accounts in the latest blow for confidence in Britain’s online banking infrastructure. The head of the powerful Treasury Committee, Nicky Morgan MP, is demanding answers from RBS and Barclays – and compensation for customers – after technical failures left millions of users locked out of their accounts.
Users on Twitter began reporting issues in the early hours of Friday, saying they were unable to access the app or online banking services. However, the bank restored services shortly after 10am. Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers were unable to access online and mobile accounts between 5am and 10.30am on Friday morning, in the latest blow for confidence in Britain’s online banking infrastructure.
The bank did not disclose the cause of the glitch, but apologised for the problems. It is understood that an upgrade to firewall software at RBS, designed to improve security for customers, backfired and left accountholders locked out of online banking and the mobile app.
The service failure came a day after some Barclays customers were left struggling to log into accounts for several hours due to a technical problem. The Co-operative bank and Cashplus have also had to apologise for online disruptions in recent days. The service failure at RBS came only a day after some Barclays customers were left struggling to log into accounts for several hours because of a technical problem. The Co-operative Bank and Cashplus have also had to apologise for online disruptions in recent days, while memories remain fresh of TSB’s huge IT meltdown earlier this year.
The latest lock-out prompted renewed criticism. Hannah Maundrell, editor in chief of money.co.uk, said: “Banks really need to pull their socks up because this keeps happening again and again. It’s really not good enough when so many customers are being encouraged to bank online.” Nicky Morgan has written to the RBS chief executive, Ross McEwan, and his Barclays counterpart, Jes Staley, asking for answers about the causes and consequences of the failure. She said: “This is yet another addition to the litany of failures of banking IT systems.
The latest banking problems follow TSB’s huge IT meltdown earlier this year, after a botched IT switch locked millions of customers out of accounts. “It simply isn’t good enough to expose customers to IT failures, including delays in paying bills and an inability to access their own money. High street banks justify the closure of their branch networks on the basis that they are providing a seamless online and mobile phone banking service. These justifications carry little weight if their banking apps and websites cannot be relied upon.”
For RBS its outage this morning will raise painful memories of the worst-ever service failure by a British bank, when a software update in 2012 resulted in millions of customers locked out of their accounts, some for up to a month. Morgan also raised the issue of compensation for customers. In her letter to McEwan and Staley, she said: “What arrangements have you put in place to compensate customers who have lost out as a result of the failure? How in particular do you intend to deal with consequential loss claims from business customers?”
As the latest outage emerged, RBS issued a statement saying: “We are aware that customers are currently experiencing issues logging into their online and mobile banking accounts. Angry customers took to Twitter as the RBS failure emerged, with one saying: “NatWest app down again. Not really acceptable for our 24-economy! How can we trust you with our money?”
“We would like to apologise for the inconvenience. Customers can still use ATMs and telephone banking.” An RBS spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to customers who experienced issues logging into their online and mobile banking accounts this morning; this issue has now been resolved.”
Angry customers took to Twitter, with one saying: “NatWest app down again. Not really acceptable for our 24-economy! How can we trust you with our money?” The latest outage at RBS will raise painful memories of the worst-ever service failure by a British bank, when a software update in 2012 at RBS resulted in millions of customers being locked out of their accounts, some for up to a month.
Royal Bank of ScotlandRoyal Bank of Scotland
BankingBanking
Banks and building societiesBanks and building societies
Barclays
Nicky Morgan
Consumer affairs
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