Ulster Bank IT failure 'largely resolved'

ULSTER BANK chief executive Jim Brown said yesterday a crisis that left hundreds of thousands of its customers without access to their accounts for nearly a month has largely been resolved.

However, many customers who contacted this newspaper yesterday said they were still experiencing significant difficulties.

Mr Brown also said tens of millions of euro have been put aside by the bank to cover refunds of erroneous charges and compensation. He said he had no intention of resigning over the debacle.

Dozens of Ulster Bank customers told The Irish Times yesterday that their balances were not being updated and duplicate charges were being imposed by the bank.

Mr Brown accepted there were still some problems, particularly with regard to duplicate transactions showing up on some accounts, but he said 98 per cent of Ulster Bank customers now have up-to-date balances.

“There is no doubt that there will be reconciliations to some customer accounts that also need to take place over the coming days and weeks,” Mr Brown said.

He said that “for the majority of customers it is now business as usual” after a technical collapse at its IT centre in Edinburgh in the middle of June.

He said it could take several more weeks to clear finally the backlog of transactions that built up during the technical fault.

Mr Brown said the bank has set aside “tens of millions of euro” to cover refunds and compensation for about 600,000 affected customers. He did not outline the nature of the compensation which is to be offered to customers.

He also said he had not investigated the issue of redundancies at the bank’s Scottish IT centre despite being pressed on it by the Oireachtas finance committee nearly two weeks ago. The committee asked Mr Brown to confirm whether the IT team responsible for the software that failed had been halved in size recently, with widespread redundancies imposed, but he said he did not know – an answer the committee’s chairman, Labour TD Alex White, described as extraordinary.

Mr Brown maintained that stance yesterday, saying it was a matter for the independent investigation into the technical collapse which is under way at the bank’s parent company, Royal Bank of Scotland.

He said the bank would refund fully all fees and charges incurred by Ulster Bank customers or customers of other banks as a result of the technical problems.

“Fees and charges directly under our control will be reversed automatically and we have already started this process. We are working closely with other banks to put a similar process in place,” he said.

He said no customer would be out of pocket as a result of the issue, adding that “a comprehensive process” would be launched later this week “so anyone impacted will fully understand how to progress any claims they may have as a result of this issue”.

He also reiterated the bank’s promise that customers’ credit ratings would not be affected as a result of the episode.

“We know that this is a significant concern for customers and we are working with the credit reference agencies to ensure that no customer’s credit rating is affected as a result of this incident,” he said.

He said the bank would be “introducing a range of measures to recognise the impact it has had on customers’ day-to-day banking needs” which would be announced “shortly”.

Mr Brown said that as head of the bank he accepted full responsibility for the crisis but would not be resigning.

“I am ultimately responsible but the issue is complex and I don’t think my job is at risk. It was outside my direct control,” he said.