Ulster Bank extends opening hours at branches this weekend

29 Jun 2012

Ulster Bank is opening some of its branches this weekend and extending their hours of operation to help customers as it continues to deal with a backlog in processing payments as a result of a technical glitch that hit the bank on 20 June.

Ulster Bank still expects normal service to be restored early next week.

“We continue to work through the backlog of payments caused as a result of the IT issues experienced in RBS Group. We’re making progress on this and are confident that this will help us restore a full service for the start of next week in Ulster Bank,” Ulster Bank said today. “We are grateful for your patience.”

Ulster Bank had said a corrupted software upgrade to the payment-processing system caused the original technical problem, affecting 100,000 customers.

The glitch has disrupted salary transfers, direct debits and social welfare payments, causing a delay in processing certain payments to bank accounts.

“We know this disruption to our customers is unacceptable and we’re committed to doing all we can to help as many of our customers as possible,” the bank said.

About 50 of Ulster Bank’s branches are open until 7pm this evening. Tomorrow, the bank will open some of its branches at 10am and will extend their openings to 3pm. The bank will also open some of its branches on Sunday, from 10am to 1pm.

Ulster Bank is asking customers who will call into the branches to bring their payslips, account details and photo identification with them.

The bank’s help desk is also open today, until 10pm, at 1800 205 100. If you are calling from abroad, please dial +353 9156 2910.

“We confirm that no customer will be out of pocket and there should be no adverse impact to customers’ credit ratings as a result of this incident,” the bank added.

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

editorial@siliconrepublic.com