Ulster Bank is tonight unable to say when it will resolve a technical glitch that saw automated payments failing to appear in customer accounts.
The bank is continuing to try and resolve the problems which today delayed overnight salary and social welfare payments. A technical team was “working hard” to rectify the issues as a priority and “as quickly as possible," a bank spokeswoman said.
The bank said it was “too early to comment” on whether the continuing issues would affect tonight’s scheduled overnight payments.
The bank has apologised for a technical glitch which meant that automated salary and social welfare payments failed appear in customer accounts today. No customer would be “disadvantaged in this issue as a result” of the error, a spokeswoman said.
It is understood this meant that those customers whose delayed wage payments affected their mortgage payments, would not be penalised by the bank.
The company was “aware of a technical issue affecting a number of Ulster Bank systems,” it said in a statement. Account balances were “not up to date” and “some services” were unavailable, the company said, adding: “We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this may cause."
Overnight payments for up to 6,000 social welfare customers were today affected by the bank’s technical glitch, a Department of Social Protection spokesman said.
The delay was “regrettable”, he said and emphasised the problem was at the bank’s end. The department is liaising with the bank to resolve the issue and get payments to social welfare recipients.
Ulster Bank is the third-largest retail bank in Ireland. It has about 1.9 million personal and business customers on the island.
