The Royal Bank of Scotland and its subsidiary Ulster Bank have been hit with a £56 million fine by regulatory authorities over a computer malfunction in 2012 that locked customers out of accounts and knocked out payments processing systems. The IT failure affected over 6.5 million UK customers for several weeks. Over the course of that period customers could not use online banking facilities to access their accounts or obtain accurate account balances from ATMs; customers were unable to make timely mortgage payments; customers were left without cash in foreign countries; the Banks applied incorrect credit and debit interest to customers’ accounts and produced inaccurate bank statements; and some organisations were unable to meet their payroll commitments or finalise their audited accounts.

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