Ulster Bank Systems Down, Many Left Without Money

I note reference here to issues surrounding KBC. I opened a deposit account with them about 2 weeks ago and transferred a small amount in. Early this week I transferred a larger sum in, and *now* I find that they use Ulster for clearing and this payment may go into limbo for an unknown period. If I had known in advance that they used Ulster I would have thought twice about doing the transfer.

Hopefully it just appears in the account in a few days and all is well.

However, let's say it doesn't appear for 3 weeks while Ulster continue pulling levers and pushing buttons at random. Is there a possibility that the value date would only reflect the date that it ultimately cleared through Ulster and into KBC ?

Or, in a really bad case - what if the money didn't appear for (say) 6 months and the interest loss was significant ? I honestly don't expect this to happen, but equally nobody expected Ulster to still be scratching their heads 2 weeks in. Is there any sort of regulation in place which governs what happens in this case ?

z

[edit] I mailed the Central Bank and the ombudsman but no response to date. KBC don't make it easy to contact them 'on the record' but once I work out how I will mail them too.

Have a number of mortgages with ICS incl my PPR one which comes out of a UB a/c,the other mortgages were taken out of PTSB a/cs but have for the first time ever missed a mortgage payment because of this blasted carry on.

Never again.

MugsGame said:

I did a test transfer from AIB to my UB savings a/c last week, which arrived the next day (if not sooner) but with narrative "CHAPS/International". It's costing someone a fortune to use CHAPS (presumably via RBS international clearing, which is working) for these transfers!

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Ulster Banks are not charging for express payments as it was the only means of payment open to them last week. - And in reality they cost the banks very little to execute, but is very profitable.

Good news is they seem to have got a lot of transactions updated in past 24 hours and I'm now up to date to 29th June - that's 4 days more than this time yesterday.

i have a business account with Ulster Bank, i made 2 standard salary payments last week to another Bank and two more last night.

the 2 transactions last week weren't showing on my statement until yesterday, but they haven't arrived yet. and the 2 last night probably wont arrived until next week or from reading on here the 16th july.

this is a f????ing disgrace, my only saving grace is my personal money is in a different bank to ulster bank, but its running out fast.

get this sorted ulster bank,

the ONLY way im staying with ulster bank and not transfering to another bank is if the bosses of Ulsterbank/RBS pass there big bonuses and take a reduced salary for a small while, and transfer the money to their customers as compensation for the Sh1t that they have put us through.

The 200 I xferred from savings to current a/c last night has been taken all but 9e a/c up to 27th June, still no sign of my wages for 29th June.

zag said:

I note reference here to issues surrounding KBC. I opened a deposit account with them about 2 weeks ago and transferred a small amount in. Early this week I transferred a larger sum in, and *now* I find that they use Ulster for clearing and this payment may go into limbo for an unknown period. If I had known in advance that they used Ulster I would have thought twice about doing the transfer.

Hopefully it just appears in the account in a few days and all is well.

However, let's say it doesn't appear for 3 weeks while Ulster continue pulling levers and pushing buttons at random. Is there a possibility that the value date would only reflect the date that it ultimately cleared through Ulster and into KBC ?

I mailed the Central Bank and the ombudsman but no response to date. KBC don't make it easy to contact them 'on the record' but once I work out how I will mail them too.

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KBC have new settlement details with BoI for deposits. There really should be something on their website about this.

You should get the correct value date when the payments come in.

Good job on contacting the CBI.

The deadline keeps getting pushed back further and further.

BBC News: Ulster Bank Crisis: Firm Says £50,000 has 'disappeared' for 2 weeks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18701908

'Severe effect'

"We have had electronic payments promised through to us over this past two weeks - over £50,000 worth - that have just disappeared completely," he said.

"Ulster Bank cannot help us. They are saying 'we'll come back to you when we know more' and that's the only line we have over the past 10 days or more."

He said it was having a "severe effect" on NIAVAC's cash flow and added that a number of his staff have not been paid for more than two weeks.

The company supplies audio visual equipment and its recent clients have included the new Giants Causeway visitor centre which opened in County Antrim on Tuesday and the new Erne Hospital in County Tyrone.

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I had an UB to UB standing order credited to my account yesterday for 25th of July. Today I log in and it's gone again. Sigh!

I've read through most of the posts here but can't see wat I'm looking for!!!!! I have a mortgage with Ulster Bank and my wages are paid into AIB but last months Mortgage has yet to be debited from my AIB account, some direct debits are due out this week (to other banks from my AIB a/c) this will make the money due for my mortgage under the amt until next Tuesday????? Will I get a bad credit rating if it comes out before tue and there's not enough money in my account????........feel like just taking the money out at dis stage n let them wait for it :O........

UB propose extending free banking as compensation for this mess.

They are having a laugh.

Finally have been paid!!! Almost feels like I have won the lottery I am that excited!! This was due 21 st ....... Only registered today and is showing as gone through on 25th!! Due to be paid again tomorrow be interesting to see if that goes through ..... Also mortgages due out this weekend to other institutions....not convinced they will happen. Been an UB customer since a lad but as both myself and wife do all our banking through them am definitely going to switch at least one of us to somewhere else.... At least then chances are one of us will get paid if similar happens again to Ulster or anyone else. Feel sorry for bank staff... Know some personally and they have been working solidly with not a lot of acknowledgement from their superiors in Head Offices.... Lots of lip service....

miseagustusa said:

I've read through most of the posts here but can't see wat I'm looking for!!!!! I have a mortgage with Ulster Bank and my wages are paid into AIB but last months Mortgage has yet to be debited from my AIB account, some direct debits are due out this week (to other banks from my AIB a/c) this will make the money due for my mortgage under the amt until next Tuesday????? Will I get a bad credit rating if it comes out before tue and there's not enough money in my account????........feel like just taking the money out at dis stage n let them wait for it :O........

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Ulster claim that no credit ratings will be adversely affected.

latest UB message

Latest notice on Ulsters Anytime Banking platform as follows...

We now expect that next week (commencing 9 July) will be the final week of any significant delays for Ulster Bank customers. We expect gradual, but significant and noticeable improvements throughout the remainder of this week and next. It is our expectation that by the week of the 16 July the vast majority of customers will return to a normal service. There may be some final reconciliations required to customers' accounts. We will provide updates daily on our progress.

I'm a customer since the early 80's and am still waiting to see cheques lodged in my branch on June 21st to show up, I have now moved my online Deposits, not worth the continued risk, thankfuly I opened another bank account a couple of years back so I can survive without the degree of hassles so many business and personal customers must be suffering...really beyond unacceptable.

I still haven't got wages which were due to be paid to me on 28th June. OH is due to be paid this Friday, customer service chap admitted these won't go through. I should be paid again next week... am beyond fury really

UB get most of their switching customers due to the free fees thing. Lots of people just don't like having to jump through loops to maybe qualify, especially when the other banks keep moving the goal posts.

The fees got me over, and while it took a while for me to also switch the CC (stupid PTSB madness), they would now make more simply on their commission from it than they pay out in interest on my savings.

They have thrown around the introduction in fees before but without seeing what way they do it, it'd be very hard to see the effect. Obviously this outage changes things.

Personally I think that UB have gone well beyond what most people would have expected with the easy access to cash in the branches, offering to taxi people in, physically lodging money into another bank for a customer, and someone even comment that they did a Western Union transfer because they were abroad, UB covering the fees of course. Could you imagine BOI or AIB doing this?

You can also be sure that in 12 months time UB will probably have one of the most stable computer systems among the banks as the top level guys will probably just start throwing money at the problem. The fact that they've re-hired staff for longish contract already points to this. Compare this to the big two who have pay freezes and are (were?) investigating outsourcing. AIB for instance has a pay freeze for a number of years, which for their IT means almost criminal levels of staff attrition.

ryaner said:

You can also be sure that in 12 months time UB will probably have one of the most stable computer systems among the banks as the top level guys will probably just start throwing money at the problem. The fact that they've re-hired staff for longish contract already points to this. Compare this to the big two who have pay freezes and are (were?) investigating outsourcing.

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I don't necessarily agree with the reasoning here. Outsourcing is not necessarily a worse solution than employing full time staff. In some cases it could be a better option - e.g. if you get the benefit of better expertise and service level agreements written into the contract. Remember that the original (arguably xenophobic/racist tinged) explanation that some poor mug in India precipitated the problem has already been debunked.

The chief executive of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, Dermott Jewell, said the bank’s apologies were completely insufficient and it would need to financially compensate affected customers.

“It must come up with a meaningful goodwill gesture both by way of apology and as a calming measure,” he said.

He suggested that the bank could abandon plans to introduce charges on its current accounts or freeze all ATM charges for a period.

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Maybe Jewell could just keep his mouth shut and leave negotiating compensation to someone who actually knows what they are talking about.

If he thinks that postponing introduction of charges is adequate compensation for those so badly discommoded by this fiasco then the man is clearly in the wrong job.

Good God!!What ATM charges is he talking about anyway??anyone??

WSJ: CBI: Ulster Banks Actions Are Clearly Inexcusable

[broken link removed]

The Central Bank of Ireland said Wednesday it will ensure Ulster Bank Limited, the Irish unit of Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS.LN), pay its customers compensation as a computer snarl-up extends into a third week. Bernard Sheridan, the central bank's head of consumer protection, told lawmakers that Ulster Bank customers continue to face huge delays after a failed computer upgrade June 19 at RBS's central computer facilities in Edinburgh, Scotland, led to payment disruption at its banks in the U.K. and Ireland.



"The failure of the RBS contingency plans to restore normal service to customers of Ulster Bank in a reasonable time frame is clearly inexcusable," Mr. Sheridan told a parliamentary committee investigating the matter. "Ulster Bank and RBS have many serious questions to answer as to how they allowed such a situation to emerge."

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The CBI are also querying why RBS de-prioritised Ulster Bank.

Ulster Bank is the third largest lender in the republic and the second largest in Northern Ireland. Lawmakers in both Dublin and Belfast have questioned RBS as to why Ulster Bank was last in line for its backlog of delayed payments to be processed.



However, Mr. Sheridan said that though the central bank "had taken the most serious view", it had been assured that Irish customers were not being deliberately disadvantaged by RBS.

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Knuttell said:

Good God!!What ATM charges is he talking about anyway??anyone??

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There arnt ATM specific fees on any of the UB current account products. Jowell does not know what he is talking about.

Agreed that the compensation needs to be much greater than a commitment to ongoing free banking.

The compensation, at this stage, needs to be a monetary amount and also fee refunds.

My two weeks of pay have finally hit my account - although they appear on the same date - more recent than they should have been entered on. My statement is nevertheless incomplete with some some debit transactions still missing....