Ulster Bank service levels returning to normal after tech debacle

13 Jul 2012

Most Ulster Bank customers should now see their account balances reflect accurate numbers and the bank still expects services to fully return to normal on Monday, the bank has said.

In a statement, Ulster Bank also said “some items, such as cheques, manual lodgements and some payments have yet to be processed and therefore will not be reflected in account balances.”

The news of a return to normal service levels should come as a relief to Ulster Bank customers after a corrupted software upgrade the night of 19 June caused a backlog in the processing of payments, and thus disrupted salary transfers, direct debits and social welfare payments. The problem affected some 100,000 customers.

“Once again we would like to unreservedly apologise to our customers,” Ulster Bank said. “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.”

Ulster Bank has reiterated that no customer, or customers of other banks, will be left permanently out of pocket as a result of the debacle.

“We are also working with credit reference agencies to ensure that customers’ credit ratings are not impacted as a result of this issue,” the bank added.

Ulster Bank has opened 51 of its branches until 7pm today. Thirty-four of its branches will be open from 10am-3pm tomorrow, and some branches will be open on Sunday, from 10am to 1pm.

Customers calling into the branches are advised to bring photographic identification and account details (account number and sort code). They should also bring their payslips if their balances do not reflect any salary payments.

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

editorial@siliconrepublic.com