RBS IT issues: Problems orginated in Edinburgh, says Stephen Hester

Published on 29/06/2012 16:56

THE IT problems which affected customers of the Royal Bank of Scotland originated in Edinburgh, it has been revealed.

In a letter to Treasury Select Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie, RBS Group chief executive Stephen Hester gave further details of how the incident happened and promised a “full and detailed investigation”.

He said the banking group’s initial findings suggest the problems were created when maintenance on its systems, which are managed and operated by its team in Edinburgh, created an error on Tuesday last week which stopped people’s accounts updating properly.

He said the knock-on effects were “substantial” and the problem was made worse because the team could not access a record of the transactions that had been processed up to the point of failure.

A “substantial backlog” was created because the group, which processes 20 million transactions a day, had to try to pinpoint the moment at which processing had stopped, which created more delays.

Mr Hester, who has announced that he will forgo his bonus this year because of the problems which have also hit Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, said it is not clear why the transaction record was not available.

He said in the letter: “There is much to do on many fronts and we clearly have yet to achieve a satisfactory level of systems resilience as part of that, albeit this was a unique incident.

“I therefore view this incident with the utmost seriousness, hitting customers as it did. I am determined to personally lead the process of regaining the trust of our customers.

“I will ensure a full and detailed investigation into the causes of the problem, overseen by independent experts.”

Related Articles

• RBS bank branches to open on Sunday as customer anger grows

  BRANCHES of Royal Bank of Scotland will open on a Sunday for the first time this weekend as RBS Group struggles to deal with the aftermath of technical problems that have affected up to 12 million customers.

  13 Comments

• Watchdog challenges RBS over IT meltdown

  THE City watchdog is demanding answers from Royal Bank of Scotland on why a technical glitch left millions of customers unable to pay bills or access their money.

  59 Comments

• RBS hit by £2.8m fine for 1.1m complaints but boss still expects £2.5m bonus

  MORE than half a million customers were poorly treated after making complaints to Royal Bank of Scotland, a new report has revealed, and yet the organisation still plans to hand out large bonuses.