Ulster Bank sorry for new technical problem, says services back to normal

7 Mar 2013

Ulster Bank has apologised to its customers for a technical problem – the second one in nine months – that left customers unable to withdraw cash from ATMs or access their accounts online or by telephone, and said services are now back to normal.

Last night, customers began to report that their cards were being declined at ATMs while others had problems accessing their accounts via the internet and telephone.

The problem was resolved at around 1am and Ulster Bank issued an apology to customers on Twitter.

“We are disappointed that our customers faced disruption to banking services for a period yesterday evening, and apologise for that,” Ulster Bank had said in a statement. “All services are now running as normal again.”

This latest technical problem reportedly stemmed from a wider issue in Britain that affected Ulster Bank owner RBS banking group and its subsidiary NatWest, RTÉ News reported.

Customers who are still having problems can call Ulster Bank at 1800 205 100 in the Republic of Ireland and at 0800 231 232 in Northern Ireland.

Last June, a corrupted software upgrade at Ulster Bank caused a backlog in the processing of payments, disrupting salary transfers, direct debits and social welfare payments for weeks.

The debacle cost the bank €103m. That’s €68m more than the financial institution had expected.

Twitter

Ulster Bank’s Twitter feed last night

Ulster Bank image by Brendan Howard/Shutterstock.com via Shutterstock

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com