Simon Read: Another cock-up by the banks - and it's RBS and Natwest yet again
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.On Thursday morning hundreds of thousands of customers of Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest banks faced problems accessing their accounts.
An IT glitch meant that customers could not access their banking app through Apple iPhones and iPad devices.
The good news is that the bank acted quickly and was able to restore service fairly quickly, meaning the problems only lasted a couple of hours on Thursday morning.
But the bad news is that NatWest and RBS inconvenienced their customers yet again because of some "glitch" or other.
All companies make mistakes and as long as they put things right quickly as possible and ensure no customers lost out, then all's well, surely?
But the problems at RBS seem to be becoming habitual. Last summer IT problems left millions of customers of RBS, NatWest and Ulster Banks unable to use their accounts. The debacle cost the banking group £175m to put right.
In March there was another problem when a hardware fault left customers blocked from using cashpoints for several hours. Online and telephone banking services were also disrupted.
This week's problems are very small beer in comparison but are notable because the bank has become a repeat offender. The more it occurs, the less trust we will have in their ability to offer us services securely and when we need them.
Is it that their systems are just not fit for purpose? I'll hope for a massive improvement from the bank.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments