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The app problems come as RBS tries to persuade customers to use more mobile banking services. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian
The app problems come as RBS tries to persuade customers to use more mobile banking services. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank apps hit by glitches

This article is more than 10 years old
Latest IT problem for banking group sees customers getting error message when logging on through apps

Around two million NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank customers found themselves unable to access their accounts via mobile apps for several hours on Friday in the latest in a series of glitches to hit the group's IT systems.

Problems were experienced by customers trying to use all three brands' apps across a range of platforms, who reported error messages when they tried to log in to check balances or arrange payments ahead of the bank holiday weekend. Some said they were being told that the app needed an internet connection to work, even though there was one in place.

The apps went wrong at 7.15am, with the group's user help Twitter accounts acknowledging that there were problems at 8am. By 1pm, RBS said that service via the apps was back to normal. A bank spokesman said the majority of customers had been unable to access the apps for less than two hours, with Android and BlackBerry customers the first to see the service returned.

He said RBS was looking into what had gone wrong, but that it was unlikely to have been caused by the volume of traffic to the apps, which cope with huge numbers of hits every morning.

The bank had similar problems with the app at the end of March, and has had a string of technical issues with other parts of its banking IT, including the meltdown in July 2012 which left some customers without proper access to their accounts for several weeks.

The consumer group Which? said customers would be seeking reassurance that their money was accessible and safe at all times. "These frequent glitches continue to raise questions about how robust and reliable banks' IT systems are," a spokesman added.

The problems came as RBS tries to persuade customers to use more mobile banking services and prepares to cut 1,400 jobs from its high-street banking arm. The NatWest homepage is dominated by an advert for its Pay Your Contacts service, where customers can use the app to transfer money to friends' and family members' mobile phone numbers.

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