NatWest Apologises

NatWest sent the following email to its customers this morning at 03:36:

"Dear *****,

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.

We appreciate this has caused an unacceptable level of inconvenience, and to help you we have over 900 of our branches extending their opening hours today until 6pm. Branches will also be open on Sunday 24th June from 9am to 12noon. Staff in our branches are ready and available to answer any customer questions and help with emergency needs.

Or, please call us at 08457 888 444.

Alternatively, for the latest information and answers to common questions please visit natwest.com

Yours sincerely,


Chris Popple
Managing Director Digital"

Stephen Hester (RBS CEO) has also issued a public apology on the NatWest website:

"Message to Customers from Stephen Hester RBS Group Chief Executive The problems of the past few days have caused disruption and inconvenience for our customers as well as for many customers of other banks. 

I am very sorry for the difficulties people are experiencing. Our customers rely on us day in and day out to get things right, and on this occasion we have let them down. This should not have happened.

Right now my top priority, and the priority of the entire RBS Group, is to fix these problems and put things right for our customers. 

This is taking time, but I want to reassure people that we are working around the clock to resolve these problems as quickly as we are able.

I also want to be clear that where our customers are facing hardship or difficulty we can and will help them. Our staff have already helped thousands of customers to access cash and we will continue to provide this service on a 24 hour basis while we work to resolve the problems. 

I also want to reassure customers that no one will be left permanently out of pocket as a result of this, and again, they should contact us directly about this.

We have doubled the usual number of staff in our call centres, and for the first time ever we will open 1,200 branches across the country on a Sunday from 9am to 12pm. 

Once again I am very sorry for the inconvenience."

There are still problems with some accounts, I for one could not draw any money out of an ATM yesterday afternoon (even though my account is in credit, the ATM told me there was insufficient funds in my account).