News

IT crash leaves millions of Brits without access to money

October 8, 2012

Computer systems at two major U.K. banks both experienced outages last Friday, leaving millions of customers in the difficult position of being unable to get cash, make purchases with their debit cards, or access their accounts online.

FIs affected by the outage included Lloyds Banking Group — which owns Halifax and Bank of Scotland, The Co-operative Bank, and the Internet bank Smile. Service was restored at the banks by late afternoon, and bank spokespeople promised that any transactions affected by the outage would receive prompt attention, said a report by The Telegraph.

"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," said a spokesman for The Co-operative Bank.

The bank said the problems were not connected, despite the fact that The Co-operative Bank is in the process of taking on the accounts of 4.8 million Lloyds customers following the buy-out of 632 Lloyds branches by The Co-operative, the article said. 

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