News Anyone impacted by RBS / Natwest fuck up?

[old.user4556]

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2012/06/21/rbs_natwest_tech_glitch_banking_freeze/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18548452

I'm guessing woeful IT offshoring strategies have played a significant part, some of the comments are interesting.

 

[ECA]

What do you mean random Indian developers can't fix the random glitch they've caused?

 

[Lamp]

Not personally, no. I ditched Natwest years ago after having had enough of their woeful customer service.

Heard a few stories on the radio (eg one woman's mortgage payment didn't go through, which counted as a payment default, and apparently her credit rating took a knock; people unable to complete on property sales/purchases, ppl unable to access their own money, etc)

 

[Aada]

Helpful Banking.

 

[rynnor]

I still bank with them from when I used to work there - I wonder if they are still using the same old batch jobs from 12 years ago?

I remember staying up all night re-running bits of the batch suite after a similar issue - not sure how they managed to screw it so badly they couldn't just back out the change and re-run the files?

At a time like that you need people who know what they are doing - sounds like most of them were made redundant - nice move beancounters

 

[Edmond]

Use them for my business account and my bookeeper hasnt been able to pay the wages, the online payment system is still down now.

If its not up by tuesday then i'll need to write cheques and hope they clear in time

 

[rynnor]

I think I might miss a mortgage payment - if I do I'll be pissed off because it will directly impact my credit rating.

 

[old.user4556]

I'm struggling to think of a bigger IT mess in recent memory. The bad press will drag on for a whie.

 

[rynnor]

I'm struggling to think of a bigger IT mess in recent memory. The bad press will drag on for a whie.

Might work to your advantage though eh

 

[old.user4556]

I did wonder how long it would take, or how far these corps would push it before something disgraceful like this would happen.

 

[rynnor]

I dont think its a great secret that most of the banking sector are in a very similarly perilous state - it will only work as a wakeup call if RBS lose a lot of money after this though. Otherwise they will cheaply apologise and move on.

 

[old.user4556]

Sad, but you're right .

 

[Shagrat]

i wondered if i'd get my wages paid in on friday as im with the natwest, but its all gone through ok.

 

[Chilly]

Absolutely nothing will change. There's no competition in the banking sector so what makes you think a bank would hurt their bottom line by improving quality of systems when they can just pay out £10m quid every few years when it goes wrong.

 

[soze]

Was this another result of the Santander merge? My parents lost access to their online backing for 21 days over this merge. My sister who works for RBS said that a ton of the systems are not compatible but no one is doing anything about smoothing the transition.

 

[Raven]

Got some cash out the other day in case it all fucked up. Wages due to go in on Wednesday but no bills due until the start of July.

 

[old.user4556]

Absolutely nothing will change. There's no competition in the banking sector so what makes you think a bank would hurt their bottom line by improving quality of systems when they can just pay out £10m quid every few years when it goes wrong.

Nail. Head.

 

[Chilly]

It's a fucking shame. Bank account numbers should be like mobile phone numbers. 1 week transfer window, no disruption in service, all payments will continue to work and end up in the correct account.

That would be my single election promise as PM. Sort the banks out and so much else will follow...

 

[Zarjazz]

Fire 1000 IT staff, likely most of them were the expensive (best) people. Entire payment system falls over during a routine software patch. Coincidence?

While I'm surprised it's taken days to resolve this issue and at a Bank who you would expect to have the procedures and redundant infrastructure to prevent these kind of incidents. I also know working as a sysadmin how a single problem on the wrong system at the wrong time can kill everything no matter how large the company. I do feel sorry for everyone it's affected, missed mortgage payments and payrolls must be a nightmare for those involved. It's going to take months for the knock on affects such as credit ratings to be resolved.

It does highlight one depressing fact. There are a lot of people in this country that aren't able to pay their bills with even one missed salary payment.

 

[old.user4556]

It's a fucking shame. Bank account numbers should be like mobile phone numbers. 1 week transfer window, no disruption in service, all payments will continue to work and end up in the correct account.

That would be my single election promise as PM. Sort the banks out and so much else will follow...

It's coming.

 

[Sockstuff]

I bank with Lloyds but the place I work for use Natwest. I should have been paid on Thursday but still no sign of the cash.

As long as I get it before the rent comes out on Friday im ok and won't have to dip into the ISA, but I know a lot of my colleagues are struggling already.

 

[Chilly]

It's coming.

Believe it when I see it. I do hope you're right, though.

 

[megadave]

The day it happened was payday at my work, loads of colleagues had direct debits coming out the same day.

 

[soze]

I get paid last working day and all my bills go out on the 3rd. While i have 1 month cover in a ISA I have nowhere near the 6 months my Financial Advisor says i should have.

 

[Ch3tan]

It's a sad state when so many people clearly live on the edge. Hopefully a lot of people might see this as a wakeup call over their finances.

 

[Chilly]

Living so close to bankruptcy is insane. A short period of illness or other misfortune can literally land you in the gutter.

 

[Aada]

Fire 1000 IT staff, likely most of them were the expensive (best) people. Entire payment system falls over during a routine software patch. Coincidence?

While I'm surprised it's taken days to resolve this issue and at a Bank who you would expect to have the procedures and redundant infrastructure to prevent these kind of incidents. I also know working as a sysadmin how a single problem on the wrong system at the wrong time can kill everything no matter how large the company. I do feel sorry for everyone it's affected, missed mortgage payments and payrolls must be a nightmare for those involved. It's going to take months for the knock on affects such as credit ratings to be resolved.

It does highlight one depressing fact. There are a lot of people in this country that aren't able to pay their bills with even one missed salary payment.

A lot of people live week to week, no savings at all.

 

[Aada]

It's a sad state when so many people clearly live on the edge. Hopefully a lot of people might see this as a wakeup call over their finances.

Doubtful.

 

[Ch3tan]

I get paid last working day and all my bills go out on the 3rd. While i have 1 month cover in a ISA I have nowhere near the 6 months my Financial Advisor says i should have.

I actually have 6 months cover, but I realise How difficult this is to manage for most people.

 

[Aada]

Problem is at the moment people just don't have the spare cash, people have used up what savings they had when they lost their jobs in the last 3-4 years, at the moment it's common just for one parent to be working and the other looking after the kids.

Doesn't really leave any room for saving money.