RBS Promises Compensation After Yet Another IT Failure

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has promised to compensate customers left out of pocket by yet another IT systems failure, which left many people unable to make online or card payments yesterday – one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Customers of RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank were unable to make purchases between 18:30 and 21:30 on Monday night, with many flocking to Twitter to complain about being unable to use their cards in shops and restaurants.

RBS failure

Compounding many customers’ frustration was that yesterday was ‘Cyber Monday’, when many retailers offer discounts and special offers. RBS, which is 80 percent owned by the UK government, has apologised for the problems and says its service should be restored to normal.

“The systems issues that affected our customers last night have now been resolved and all our services are now back working normally,” it says. “’We would like to apologise to our customers. If anyone has been left out of pocket as a result of these systems problems, we will put this right.

“If any customer is experiencing issues this morning, they should get in touch with our call centres or come into our branches, where our staff will be ready to help.”

Previous offences

Some customers are still complaining that they are unable to use their card, but even if the problems have been addressed, the reputational damage caused is significant, given the bank’s recent string of IT failures.

Earlier this year, a glitch prevented customers from withdrawing funds from cash machines, but the most high profile failure was in June 2012, when a software upgrade left millions of customers unable to make transfers or even tell if their bank balance had the correct funds.

Days of chaos ensued as customers complained they had not received wages and were concerned about not being able to buy basic provisions. The blunder cost the bank £175 million and resulted in an investigation from the Financial Conduct Authority.

Yesterday, RBS was awarded a Tech Success award by TechWeekEurope for a system developed with Websense  that involves end users in preventing data loss.

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