Lloyds Says Crash Fixed After Millions Left Without Access to Cash
Customers of the Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland, were unable to use cash machines or debit cards, and struggled to bank online. The Co-operative Bank and Smile were also affected by system problems, in a situation reminiscent of the high-profile IT issue at Royal Bank of Scotland in June, which left millions of its customers without cash for several days. Lloyds said that its systems were up and running again at 4pm and promised that it was “working hard to process the transactions impacted by this problem”. “They will be resolved by the close of play today,” a spokesman said. “We know our customers rely on us, and we apologise for the inconvenience we have caused them,” he added. The bank’s telephone systems were also affected while customers were unable to withdraw money in their branches, which were also affected by the system failure. A spokesman for the Co-operative Bank, which experienced similar issues, said that its issue was also fixed on Friday afternoon. “We can confirm that our systems are now fully operational and customers should now be able to use their accounts as normal. We would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by this temporary issue.” The bank said that there was no connection between the problems at the banks, despite the fact that the Co-operative Bank is about to take on 4.8 million Lloyds customers after agreeing terms to buy 632 Lloyds branches across the UK. Many new Co-operative Bank customers made the switch to the bank following the systems problems at NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank prides itself on its high scores for customer satisfaction and sees itself as a challenger to the major high street banks. October 6, 2012
Copyright © 2012 Daily Telegraph
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