The head of the powerful Treasury Committee, Nicky Morgan MP, is demanding answers from RBS and Barclays – and compensation for customers – after technical failures left millions of users locked out of their accounts.
Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers were unable to access online and mobile accounts between 5am and 10.30am on Friday morning, in the latest blow for confidence in Britain’s online banking infrastructure.
It is understood that an upgrade to firewall software at RBS, designed to improve security for customers, backfired and left accountholders locked out of online banking and the mobile app.
The service failure at RBS came only a day after some Barclays customers were left struggling to log into accounts for several hours because of a technical problem. The Co-operative Bank and Cashplus have also had to apologise for online disruptions in recent days, while memories remain fresh of TSB’s huge IT meltdown earlier this year.