RBS hit by new IT debacle as 600,000 payments fail

Customer’s of the Edinburgh-based bank were left enraged overnight and today after the 80 per cent state owned lender admitted that many of the affected transactions might not be completed until the end of the week.

Payments including tax credits and disability living allowance are among those that have failed to be credited to accounts.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which oversees some benefits payments, said that some tax credits and child benefit payments had not gone through, and that those affected should contact their bank.

RBS initially said some payments were “missing”, but it had now identified and fixed the underlying problem.

Delayed payments would be processed “no later than Saturday”, it said.

An RBS spokesman said: “We are aware of an issue which has resulted in a delay to payments and direct debits being applied to some customer accounts.

“We have fixed the underlying issue, we apologise for the inconvenience caused and we are working flat out to get these payments updated for our customers no later than Saturday.

“To any customers concerned about the implications of this issue, we advise them to come into a branch or get in touch with our call centres, where our staff will be ready to help. We will ensure no customers are left out of pocket as a result of this issue.”

It is another humiliating episode for RBS following a string of such incidents including one major meltdown in 2012 which resulted in a £56m fine for the group which consists of RBS, NatWest, Coutts and Ulster Bank - all have been affected by the issues.

Some customers reported waiting up to an hour for an answer from the bank’s call centre, on calls which could be charged at a local rate.

The bank said it was experiencing a “high volume of calls”.

Earlier this week Nationwide - Britain’s biggest building society - suffered its own embarrassing IT meltdown which left millions of its customers unable to access internet or mobile banking on Monday morning.

The glitch at Nationwide Building Society - whose tagline is ‘on your side’ - also meant online payments were unavailable.

Internet and mobile banking was back up-and-running by mid-Monday morning.