Ulster Bank Refunds Customers

Customers of Ulster Bank who found their accounts debited twice for withdrawals earlier this week, have been refunded, it is understood.

The problem with the computer system stared on Easter Monday (21 April) and continued into Easter Tuesday. The issue was identified when some customers said that cash machine withdrawals had been debited from their accounts twice.

This is the latest technical issue to hit the bank in recent times and has sparked concern.

Alliance Party spokesperson for Finance, Judith Cochrane, said: "Following the serious problems that affected Ulster Bank in 2012, I am deeply concerned that another technical problem has occurred.

"Ulster Bank has indicated that the money will be urgently returned to customers. However, they must also respond to any circumstances where charges have been incurred by customers who did not have enough money in their accounts as a result of this IT problem.

"To restore public confidence, Ulster Bank must take urgent action to ensure that there are no repeats of this incident."

Ulster Bank have since released a statement saying the money had been refunded to affected customers' accounts on Thursday night, and again issued an apology.

In 2012, a serious technical failure at parent company RBS meant many customers were left unable to access their money for weeks. The chaos led to the bank handing out £18m in compensation. Then last year, a series of glitches again hit the bank's systems. One such incident occurred in December, just days before Christmas when customers were unable to use their debit or credit cards, while online services and smartphone apps were also affected.

(JP)