Ulster Bank Systems are down part 2 *READ* First post

Stheno

Solair wrote: »

I think they should be put into some sort of special status where they are basically have some kind of trustees appointed to supervise a roll out of proper IT to best practice standards.

They should be placed on the board of the bank.

The Central bank are quoted in the Irishtimes today saying that it is not their function to oversee IT systems

They also say that they can fine Ulsterbank up to five million and will order them to compensate customers.

The manner in which Ulster Bank is handling the technical failure which has left tens of thousands of customers without access to funds for over two weeks has been described by the Central Bank as “appalling”.

Appearing before an Oireachtas committee today, the bank's director of consumer protection Bernard Sheridan castigated both Ulster Bank and its parent Royal Bank of Scotland for contingency planning which "has self-evidently been appalling".

Mr Sheridan also criticised the bank's approach to customer communication as "exasperating" and said the Central Bank would be requiring Ulster Bank "to put in place a comprehensive restitution plan for impacted customers".

He said the bank would be insisting that Ulster Bank compensated its customers and customers of other institutions affected by the crisis for costs and charges incurred as a result of the collapse of its systems following a software failure on June 19th.

"It had to be recognised by Ulster Bank in designing this restitution plan that their customers have been seriously inconvenienced by these events. This extends to the small and medium businesses as well as personal customers," he said.

The Central Bank expected the plan to be "implemented effectively and efficiently" and he said the bank would be monitoring the process throughout.

Mr Sheridan declined to say what level of penalties, if any, would be imposed on Ulster Bank once the crisis is resolved but told the committee that the maximum fine it could currently impose was €5 million.

He said it was clear arrangements for an IT systems failure had not operated as they should have at Ulster Bank. He said the Central Bank had instructed all banks in the Irish clearing system to review their contingency plans "and to formally reconfirm that a robust recovery system is in place".

While the Central Bank was critical of Ulster Bank's response to the crisis, it came under fire itself for what was described as its slow response to the system breakdown.

Fianna Fáil's Michael McGrath and Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty described the initial response of the Central Bank as inadequate.

Mr McGrath said he would have liked to have seen “far more upfront and active engagement" from the regulator. He noted that while the technical problems became public on Wednesday June 19th, the first statement by the Central Bank was not released until the following Sunday.

"Maybe we should have issued something sooner," Mr Sheridan conceded. However, he said the regulator’s priority was to make sure the problem was "to resolve the issue very quickly". Only when it became apparent this was not going to be the case did the Central Bank communicate directly with the public.

The committee also expressed concern that a lack of IT expertise within the Central Bank meant its ability to investigate the causes of the problem was seriously hampered. In response, Mr Sheridan said that it was not a function of financial regulators to monitor IT systems across the sector.

Senior management from Ulster Bank will appear before the committee tomorrow.

In an update this morning, Ulster Bank said it expected the coming week, starting July 9th, to be the final week of any "significant" delays for customers, and predicted gradual but noticeable improvements throughout the remainder of this week.

"It is our expectation that by the week of July 16th the vast majority of customers will return to a normal service, barring any residual reconciliation required," the bank said.

The bank is still one week behind on processing the daily “batch” of transactions as a result of a computer glitch at a technical facility in Edinburgh run by the bank’s owner, Royal Bank of Scotland, over two weeks ago.

Ulster Bank was yesterday processing transactions that should have gone through its system on Tuesday, June 26th, according to well-placed sources familiar with attempts to correct the technical problems. Chief executive of the Irish bank Jim Brown had said last week that the problems should be rectified by the start of this week.

The further delays have been attributed to the slow processing of daily transactions from last week that should in normal circumstances have taken between six and 12 hours to complete but are taking 24 hours due to technical problems.

Slow progress on resolving the problems has pushed the crisis into its third week. Rival lender AIB has helped Ulster Bank to process payments for large companies, including the HSE, one of its biggest clients.

Taylor365

I'm owed 70 euro from duplicate debits transactions and my wages on top of that. Still nothing yet.

Hibernicis

Solair wrote: »

I think they should be put into some sort of special status where they are basically have some kind of trustees appointed to supervise a roll out of proper IT to best practice standards.

They should be placed on the board of the bank.

I predicted the other day that the regulator would be vicious and this afternoon's words were the first clear indication of this. When have you ever before seen the CBI/regulator use a work such as "appaling" to describe the behaviour of a major going concern which is under its remit. The statements we saw from the bank this afternoon were likely scripted for them and to be honest I'd say that that control is already slipping from their grip. There is no doubt that they have had "minders" injected at this stage. Remember this is the same regulatory regime that swooped so successfully on the once mighty Quinn. They were obviously slow to kick into gear on this (probably having far too much trust in RBS/UB) but thats water under the bridge.

I also predicted in a previous post that RBS/UB would achieve a VERY "special status" and I stick by this.

bob skunkhouse

I called into my local UB last week to withdraw money to pay my mortgage in another bank only to be told that the maximum withdrawal is 500 bucks. Heres the deal, what happens if i want to close the account and withdraw all money from my a/c. What do they do in this instance. Surely they must give me my dosh ( more than 500)?

Did brown say in the 6 news that customers will be compensated?

petrapig

Ok I'm so annoyed ... Wages from the 19th appeared from the eether today and so did a load of " no further information " debits and my account has some crazy amount in it after all this - now the problem is i don't bloody know how bloody much i should have and i don't know what half the debits are - this is beyond a joke - glad i opened my BOI accounts on FridAY and signed the mandate to change my mortgage payments and wages from the new accounts startin asap- i will just go down tommorrow now and get out as much as i can and they can effin sue me , drop dead Ulster bank , i dont trust or believe a word so they can chase me for cash for a change-

petrapig

if they came and cleaned out my hot press i still wouldn't stay ,. but i'll take any compo before i give them the bird on the way out-

2qk4u

Im the same Ive no idea if I have any money ? what or who has been paid or not ? where is the cheque I lodged ?
I cant do another two weeks of this, its just a pity all the other banks are ****e too..

2qk4u

petrapig wrote: »

if they came and cleaned out my hot press i still wouldn't stay ,. but i'll take any compo before i give them the bird on the way out-

I heard today that Ulster Bank were to introduce bank charges and are now planing on holding off for a few months as a form of compensation..

chasm

2qk4u wrote: »

I heard today that Ulster Bank were to introduce bank charges and are now planing on holding off for a few months as a form of compensation..

UB CEO Jim Brown said on RTE news that the bank is considering ways of compensating customers, so until RBS/UB make an official statement saying what that compensation will be all reports are just speculation really.

gozunda

bob skunkhouse wrote: »

I called into my local UB last week to withdraw money to pay my mortgage in another bank only to be told that the maximum withdrawal is 500 bucks. Heres the deal, what happens if i want to close the account and withdraw all money from my a/c. What do they do in this instance. Surely they must give me my dosh ( more than 500)?

Did brown say in the 6 news that customers will be compensated?

Is that limit per day?

If so go every day until you have your accout at a satisfactory limit (ahem)

Alternatively if its per branch then your nearest big city should be feasible

atellyer

Here's a contrast for you.

I used to work in the UK (many moons ago) and still have about 50 quid in a NatWest account over there.

A couple of days after the current crisis occurred I received an email from NatWest which said:

"We apologise to all of our customers who have been affected by our current technical issues. These resulted in money credited to customers accounts overnight not appearing in their balances as it should. This problem is strictly of a technical nature, we have fixed the initial problem and our priority has been to work round the clock to sort the backlog as soon as possible. "

They then went on to outline what arrangements they had for extended hours at the bank branches etc.

A few days later they followed up this email with one that stated the following:

We know that our current technical issues may still be impacting a number of our customers as we work to clear the backlog. To make it easier for our customers experiencing difficulties accessing cash we have made the following arrangements. All our current account customers who have an RBS, NatWest or Mint credit card in good order can now:

* Withdraw up to an additional £100 over their limit on their credit card, with over-limit fees or charges automatically waived or refunded

* For Cash withdrawals on their card, cash advance fees as well as one month's worth of interest on the transaction will be waived or refunded

For all current account customers we will:
* Automatically waive or refund overdraft fees and charges on current accounts for customers who have been impacted

We are making these commitments today and there is no requirement for any customer to take further action to benefit from these changes."


I have had further similar emails from NatWest since.

In contrast I have not had so much as a text from UB. That speaks volumes. How much effort would it have taken to knock up similar emails to the one from it's sister company?

chasm

atellyer wrote: »

Here's a contrast for you.

I used to work in the UK (many moons ago) and still have about 50 quid in a NatWest account over there.

A couple of days after the current crisis occurred I received an email from NatWest which said:

"We apologise to all of our customers who have been affected by our current technical issues. These resulted in money credited to customers accounts overnight not appearing in their balances as it should. This problem is strictly of a technical nature, we have fixed the initial problem and our priority has been to work round the clock to sort the backlog as soon as possible. "

They then went on to outline what arrangements they had for extended hours at the bank branches etc.

A few days later they followed up this email with one that stated the following:

We know that our current technical issues may still be impacting a number of our customers as we work to clear the backlog. To make it easier for our customers experiencing difficulties accessing cash we have made the following arrangements. All our current account customers who have an RBS, NatWest or Mint credit card in good order can now:

* Withdraw up to an additional £100 over their limit on their credit card, with over-limit fees or charges automatically waived or refunded

* For Cash withdrawals on their card, cash advance fees as well as one month's worth of interest on the transaction will be waived or refunded

For all current account customers we will:
* Automatically waive or refund overdraft fees and charges on current accounts for customers who have been impacted

We are making these commitments today and there is no requirement for any customer to take further action to benefit from these changes."


I have had further similar emails from NatWest since.

In contrast I have not had so much as a text from UB. That speaks volumes. How much effort would it have taken to knock up similar emails to the one from it's sister company?

I was half expecting a text or email after the first week but nothing! despite what they say i do believe UB customers are not a priority to the RBS group, and there is nothing they could do now that would convince me otherwise.
The suits in UB were very slow to issue a statement on the whole matter and i think that has just infuriated customers even more. Actually UBs handling of the whole matter has been very delayed compared to their UK counterparts, as have out financial regulator. It's as if our guys cannot act here till they see how much noise they are making across the water first.
~sorry rant over

tonymahoney

Like everyone here I AM PISSED OFF with Ulster Bank - nothing processed for 11 days and now my salary has been duplicated - yes folks I HAVE BEEN PAID TWICE. So do I withdraw this money and change my payroll bank account?? Let them fight for their money back like I have to? But that would be very dishonest - wouldn't it?

den87

Soooo chances of getting this weeks wages this week? Slim to none? This is a joke

tommyboy2222

Like everyone here I AM PISSED OFF with Ulster Bank - nothing processed for 11 days and now my salary has been duplicated - yes folks I HAVE BEEN PAID TWICE. So do I withdraw this money and change my payroll bank account?? Let them fight for their money back like I have to? But that would be very dishonest - wouldn't it?

You lucky sod :pac:

I'm waiting since the 21st of June for my paycheck.

gozunda

...

There was an Irish bank called Ulster
which did not make suffucient muster
As there was no money in its bank
All the staff were less than frank
Its customers went away in a fluster

Domhnall66

tommyboy2222 wrote: »

You lucky sod :pac:

I'm waiting since the 21st of June for my paycheck.

It's tempting, isn't it?
Unless you were preparing to skip the country anyway though, it probably isn't worth it (morality aside).
But a man can dream while it lasts anyway

Or they could send a postcard! Some [sunnier] parts of the world, two Irish-rate paycheques is a month's lease on a pub or other business/a bloody good start :):)

Solair

den87 wrote: »

Soooo chances of getting this weeks wages this week? Slim to none? This is a joke

According to posts on here, it looks like you could get sod-all or your wages multiple times over depending on what crazy process their system's running!

Who'd have thought getting your pay into your bank account could become more exciting than a trip to the bookies!

Jesus Wept

2qk4u wrote: »

I heard today that Ulster Bank were to introduce bank charges and are now planing on holding off for a few months as a form of compensation..

That's not compensation.

Brink

I don't know what compensation anyone will get or what penalties will be levied on UB if any..

I work for a sme and have responsibility for accounts and wages etc.
I have found my relationship manager helpful... front line staff have been very cheerful and helpful considering their conditions.

None of this helps me to meet my staturory obligations. Bank reconciliations must be done at months end.. which has now passed and they now say it will be the week of July 9th before the majority of it's customers will be up to date. Not good
Job losses were announced for UB a little while back.. the last time this happened they made everyone redundant and they had to apply to get their jobs back..
This is how their treat frontline staff, the face that everyone meets.. I don't hold out too much hope for clients/customers

Jesus Wept

Are direct debits from next week and onwards due to leave on time or not.
Their statement/FAQ is as clear as mud.

Also, you'd think they'd put a ****ing date on the statement.
A name too.

Brink

My understanding is that anything done online, apart from bulk payments and international payments are going through
Bulk payments are wage payments

filmbuffboy

2qk4u wrote: »

I heard today that Ulster Bank were to introduce bank charges and are now planing on holding off for a few months as a form of compensation..

they were planning on introducing fees for day to day banking in the coming months anyways.

thats not compensation imho

jayteecork

I want hard currency credited into my account as compo.

chasm

Andy Carroll wrote: »

Are direct debits from next week and onwards due to leave on time or not.
Their statement/FAQ is as clear as mud.

I doubt UB even know the answer to that

kryogen

Brink wrote: »

My understanding is that anything done online, apart from bulk payments and international payments are going through
Bulk payments are wage payments

They have already said they would be paying DD's I think, however ours didn't get taken, a nice charge was added of course :rolleyes:

Ferrakins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w17mf60rcTU this ones better:) - skip forward to 50 sec

Fergality

midlandsmissus wrote: »

Extending free bankin - are they joking.

They can't say they are going to extend free banking when they never gave a correct date for when it was going to start anyway.

For all we know they were going to start in 2013 anyway.


I've ben very patient with this, but now I have to make a large payment on flights and I'm anooyed as my account is froze on 700 euro online (and it would let me take out 700 euro that is not actually there).

Sounds better than it is. I know I have taken out around 600 euro already so my balance should really be around 100 euro, but due to be paid 500 euro this week. But not knowing exactly what I have is freaking me out. Should I really have written down every transaction that I made so that I can be sure when they catch up? I'm freaking out!

I'm in a similar boat (apologies also if this has been breached at some point in the previous 64 pages but I simply don't have time to read the entire thread)

I withdrew 500 quid last week from 630 euro wages, and received no receipt. So I have 130 left, and there'll be a further payment of 360 tomorrow. However, some transfers from June are now showing up on my online banking and the ATM including a 330 euro payment from June 21st. I went to the ATM and withdrew 130 of that. So in reality I have zero euro left in my bank. However, I seem to have withdrawn that cash from money that doesn't actually exist.

I just have a bad feeling about this. The lack of receipt was unprofessional, I always get one when the bank isn't tits up when I need to go inside to withdraw.

filmbuffboy

Fergality wrote: »

I'm in a similar boat (apologies also if this has been breached at some point in the previous 64 pages but I simply don't have time to read the entire thread)

I withdrew 500 quid last week from 630 euro wages, and received no receipt. So I have 130 left, and there'll be a further payment of 360 tomorrow. However, some transfers from June are now showing up on my online banking and the ATM including a 330 euro payment from June 21st. I went to the ATM and withdrew 130 of that. So in reality I have zero euro left in my bank. However, I seem to have withdrawn that cash from money that doesn't actually exist.

I just have a bad feeling about this. The lack of receipt was unprofessional, I always get one when the bank isn't tits up when I need to go inside to withdraw.

yep.

other posters have reported no receipts too. or cashiers just writing on their payslips and handing it back to them. a joke of a bank that i look forward to washing my hands of

jagnux

Just noticed a payment sent via bank transfer on 25th June @ 00:00 hit my account, is anyone still waiting on money from 20th onwards?