Ulster Bank unable to say when it will fix fault

ULSTER BANK was last night unable to say when it would resolve a technical glitch that saw automated payments failing to appear in customer accounts.

The bank was last night continuing to try to resolve the problems which yesterday delayed overnight salary and social welfare payments.

A technical team was “working hard” to rectify the issues as a priority and “as quickly as possible”, a bank spokeswoman said.

The bank said it was “too early to comment” on whether the issues would affect last night’s scheduled overnight payments.

No customer would be “disadvantaged in this issue as a result” of the error, a spokeswoman said.

It is understood this meant that customers whose delayed wage payments affected their mortgage payments would not be penalised by the bank.

The company was “aware of a technical issue affecting a number of Ulster Bank systems”, it said in a statement.

Account balances were “not up to date” and “some services” were unavailable, the company said.

“We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this may cause,” the bank said yesterday.

Overnight payments for up to 6,000 social welfare customers were yesterday affected by the bank’s technical glitch, a Department of Social Protection spokesman said last night.

The delay was “regrettable”, he said. He emphasised that the problem was at the bank’s end. The department was last night liaising with the bank to resolve the issue and get payments to social welfare recipients.

Ulster Bank is the third-largest retail bank in Ireland. It has about 1.9 million personal and business customers on the island.

The systems glitch affected customers on both sides of the Border. Customers in-branch and those using online services were affected.

The bank has more than 120 branches across the State and more than half a million of its customers are registered for its Anytime Banking online service.

Ulster Bank is owned by UK state-controlled bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

RBS also owns UK retail bank Natwest, which yesterday also experienced similar technical problems.