Natwest tech problems won't be resolved until at least Monday

A statement from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has confirmed that the technical issues that have affected millions of Natwest customers will not be resolved until at least Monday.

Although the technical problems have been mainly resolved, RBS confirmed that the backlog of transactions will not be resolved until at least Monday.

A statement issued bt RBS said: "We know that a system outage on Tuesday caused this backlog.

"While that outage has been resolved, the backlog itself is now the problem and RBS is working around the clock to resolve this."

The bank confirmed that once again branches will remain open until 7pm tonight and there will be extended opening hours at the weekend, including Sunday. A statement on the website said: "Over 1000 of our branches will be open until 7pm tonight to help customers with enquiries or who need access to their cash. Our branches open on Saturday will extend working hours to 6pm, and these branches will also be open this Sunday from 9am to 12pm."

Many Natwest branches opened up at 08:00 this morning to provide additional support to customers affected by the technical problems that started yesterday and have yet to be fully resolved.

Some customers are still waiting to have their account transactions updated or processed. Some customers are still not seeing payments received showing on their accounts, potentially causing them to not have the funds to honour direct debits or other payments going out of their accounts.

In a Twitter update Natwest confirmed that it had failed to fully solve the technical problems overnight: “Unfortunately we are again experiencing technical issues with our systems.

Customers account balances have not updated properly overnight. If money has gone into an account it may be delayed appearing on the balance,” the update said.

As well as many Natwest customers, some accounts with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the Ulster Bank have also been affected.

Natwest confirmed that no customers will be left “out of pocket.”

Around 1,000 branches stayed open until 7pm on Thursday night to allow customers to check their accounts or tackle problems at a branch at a time convenient to them when they had finished work. This also allowed customers to withdraw cash over the counter if they were unable to access funds through cash-point machines.

Customers were still bombarding Natwest’s website with messages of complaint.

Saberblock from Cheshire said: "Online banking is now down too - not being able to access my wages today is a major inconvenience, one which can hopefully be compensated, but how exactly how do you intend to make us trust your services and company ever again? It's a great shame."

Roguedreams from Leeds said: "I feel so sorry for the call centre staff today. Someome should really issue a decent Emergency FAQ to help lower the call volume. Can't believe this has become such a monumental mess."

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