A BAD week for Royal Bank of Scotland was rounded off when the taxpayer-backed group was hit by a new computer systems failure and an embarrassing mistake by its number crunchers.
Just 24 hours after the owner of RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank was fined £56million for a massive computer failure in 2012, the gremlins struck again.
The latest IT glitch affected customers using credit and debit cards but fortunately was resolved within 90 minutes.
And to pile on the woe for […]
New figures show two banks attracted over 56,000 new complaints in first half of this year.
Lloyds Banking Group is the banking group the Financial Ombudsman Service received most complaints about, according to its latest figures, while Barclays generated the highest percentage of complaints per customer.
Between January and June this year, over 30,000 people complained to the Ombudsman about the Lloyds group, which includes Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland. And nearly 27,000 people complained about Barclays.
The Ombudsman is where […]
Britain’s biggest banks have admitted sending thousands of letters from fake debt collection agencies in a deliberate attempt to intimidate customers into paying up.
In a series of letters to the Commons Treasury committee, several of the biggest names in banking admit they have sent misleading letters to tens of thousands of customers who are struggling to repay their debts. They now face the prospect of a full-scale inquiry by MPs, who have condemned the ‘menacing’ practice. Andrew Tyrie, Tory […]
Mark Garnier, the Conservative MP for Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, has condemned banks for committing “the same crimes” following the financial crisis, and called for greater empowerment and accountability for frontline staff.
Discussing the £14.5m fine imposed on Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest for “serious failings” in their advised mortgage business by the FCA, Treasury select committee member Mr Garnier said: “They are obviously moving on with this, but it’s truly shocking that banks are still committing the same […]
A relaxation in the rules governing the creation of new banks is yet to lead to a dramatic increase in the number of new high street players being authorised by the City regulator.
Figures published by the Bank of England show little change in the annual approval rate for new banks since the introduction of rules last year, which mean that new banks need less capital to get started than they did in the past.
Five banks were authorised in the […]
The bank has suffered yet another technical problem this time denying interest payments on thousands of savings accounts and ISAs.
NatWest today confirmed it had fixed a technical problem that had prevented interest payments on thousands of savings accounts and ISAs.
Customers trying to log on to online banking were yesterday told: “We are aware that monthly, quarterly and annual interest payments have not been applied to some savings accounts. This is being investigated as a piority and we’ll update you […]
Small and medium sized manufacturing businesses will be able to use their assets to borrow cash thanks to a newly created team at RBS and NatWest.
Asset based lending (ABL) is a well established funding mechanism which allows companies to borrow money against its assets including existing stock and equipment.
The newly established team includes 11 specialist finance managers who facilitate deals across the UK – specifically for businesses with a turn over of between £10 million and £25 million.
Although RBS […]
A massive £6.6billion of new lending will be offered to small and medium-sized businesses by Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest.
The banks will contact 23,000 small and medium-sized business customers in a move that comes ahead of a new inquiry by MPs into bank lending to firms.
Ian Cowie, chief executive of business and commercial banking for NatWest and RBS, said: ‘We are proactively speaking to customers to let them know how much we could lend if they want […]
The bosses of Britain’s biggest banks are on course to be awarded millions of pounds in share payments to circumvent a Brussels-imposed bonus cap – a move that risks inflaming the toxic row over City pay deals.
The new payments would be in addition to bank leaders’ basic pay because the EU is limiting bonuses to 100% of salaries – or 200% if shareholders approve larger payments.
The big-four high street banks are consulting shareholders about bonuses for chief executives that […]
Union expresses shock as review initiated by Bank governor Mark Carney focuses cuts on IT and HR staff
Pedestrians and workers outside the Bank of England. The Bank says it ‘envisages between 80 and 100 redundancies’. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty
The Bank of England has announced its biggest jobs cull for more than a decade, with 100 positions to go as part of an efficiency drive.
The “value for money review”, which was launched shortly after Mark Carney arrived as governor last year, puts as many […]
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Promontory Financial Group and Mazars to conduct an independent skilled persons report under section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) 2000.
The report will examine Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) treatment of business customers in financial difficulty and consider allegations of poor practice set out in the report by Dr Lawrence Tomlinson and referenced in Sir Andrew Large’s report.
The first stage of the review will consider RBS’ treatment of a […]
Ed Miliband has picked a reasonable fight with big bank bosses, but his suggested structure leaves much to be desired. His desired structure – two new challenger banks created via divestments of branches by the current big banks – looks unworkable. Too crude. Too costly. Too time consuming. Ed Miliband should prepare for more attacks along these lines. Executives at big banks simply hate the idea that they should be made to unload parts of their organisations.
Some of the objections carry […]
A legal dispute resulted in the bank using a private eye to access a customer’s credit rating file – and he wants to know why
If you were embroiled in a dispute with your bank, how would you feel if you discovered that, unbeknown to you, private detectives had accessed your credit report to get the lowdown on your finances?
Perhaps you would be shocked and consider it a breach of your privacy, as there are tight controls on who can […]
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