Computer glitch hits Ulster Bank in North

The Central Bank says it has contacted Ulster Bank after bank payments in the North and lenders owned by parent group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in Britain were hit early yesterday by a new computer glitch.

The latest problems to hit RBS follow the huge problems at RBS’s computers in Edinburgh that effectively paralysed Ulster Bank operations for two weeks across Ireland three years ago.

The 2012 computer problems were considered so serious that the Central Bank last November fined Ulster Bank €3.5m. It also demanded that RBS separate Ulster computers from its other Edinburgh overnight batch processes that handled RBS’s other banks NatWest and Coutt’s. Ulster Bank also offered compensation for customers at the time.