Banking giant RBS Group claims that the "technical failure" of its computer systems, which has been causing severe problems for customers since at least last Wednesday, has now been fixed.
But it admits that knock-on problems will continue throughout the day as the bank struggles to clear the backlog of outstanding payments that have been building up over the past week.
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"We are making progress to clear the backlog of payments and I'm cautiously optimistic that RBS and NatWest customer account balances will be largely back to normal from tomorrow," said Susan Allen, director of customer services at RBS Group.
However, Computing can confirm – from speaking to a NatWest personal finance representative on the bank's customer support phone service today – that customers are still calling the bank with unresolved issues, and that many people's account balances remain incorrect as ingoing and outgoing payments fail to register.
Allen confirmed that overdraft fees and other charges on current accounts for affected customers will be waived, and processed in the next few days, while RBS Group will "work directly with credit agencies to ensure that no one has their credit score affected".
RBS Group insists that for "all other issues", customers have the bank's commitment that "they will not be out of pocket". RBS Group intends to release further plans on how this will be achieved "later in the week".
NatWest is extending its opening hours again from 8am to 7pm today, as it did at the weekend, in order to try and address face-to-face the issues of its 7.5 million customers.
In a statement released on RBS Group's website on Saturday, Stephen Hester, chief executive at RBS Group, apologised: "I am very sorry for the difficulties people are experiencing.
"Our customers rely on us, day in and day out, to get things right, and on this occasion we have let them down. This should not have happened."
The banking group has been further criticised for setting up a prenium-rate 0845 helpline for customers who have experienced problems.
