RBS and Natwest online banking goes titsup

Customers of RBS and Natwest have complained they are unable to access their online banking accounts. Issues appeared to begin this morning, with the bank yet to release an official statement about the problem. However, it told one customer in response to a tweet that its "tech team are investigating the issue as a matter of …

[Mike Goodwin]

Not sure if related, but my HSBC mobile banking app seemingly wont connect to their servers at the minute.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, that's *normal* incompetence, and more due to it being a crap bank. They've already had their outage, so this is probably deliberate.

[LucreLout]

LOL!!

And still they haven't learned. IT is the core of your business, it is not a cost to be cut - it is the essence of your business. Cheap Indians are not capable of doing the job, and by the time they are they will no longer be cheap.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: LOL!!

"! IT is the core of your business"

And if they keep demonstrating failure to maintain the core of their business the regulators should be asking them why they think they're entitled to keep their licence.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: LOL!!

the regulators should be asking them why they think they're entitled to keep their licence

Because a Godawful tax payer money is still tied up in it, or has that been taken back already?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: LOL!!

Make that licenses, the banking licenses of the directors as just happened to a couple of the Co-op's senior bods.

[Hans 1]

Shit, are they going to be fined yet once more ? Poor customers, will have to pay yet another fine ...

[Nairda]

It won't be the customers that pay the fine., it'll come out of the bankers bonu.............. DAMN!

[Jimmy2Cows]

Again?

Not that I'm really surprised, but isn't it about time they were properly spanked for this crap?

And I don't mean a wet towel flicking session with their crony government mates...

Give the regulator some sharp teeth and pointy claws, stop the banks repeatedly shafting those whose money they look after.

It's all to easy to fuck up then say "we won't leave you out of pocket" but that doesn't alleviate or compensate for the hassle caused, time lost sorting out bounced payments, stain on credit record for missing a mortgage/bill/credit card payment etc.

Hit them where it hurts. Hard. Next time hit them harder.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: Again?

"...isn't it about time they were properly spanked for this crap?"

My guess is that would be rather an incentive than a threat to some of them (nudge nudge, wink wink..)

[AlCro]

No problems for me

I have just successfully logged on to my online RBS bank account via my PC within 19 minutes of this article appearing on The Register --- so no problems for me via this route.

[dcluley]

Re: No problems for me

None for me either. As it happens I had to login to my NatWest Account on three separate occasions this morning. Each with no problem.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No problems for me

My RBS App is fine as well....

[Stella Duvel]

Seems OK

Just made a payment with NWOLB - looked like it worked (at least insofar as taking the money out of the account was concerned, hopefully it will arrive OK)

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't they just leave it down? It would save future embarrassment.

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps instead we could just take Natwest out back and shoot it. It's time.

[taxman]

El Reg Phishing?

Lovely piece of work. Say a site isn't up and running and make a note of all those who say they have no problem logging in.

So you bank with........ do you ;-) Thanks.

(email address, pseudonyms, bank.....)

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: El Reg Phishing?

Obviously no one at EL-Reg banks with them or they would have tried it for themselves.

Nah, far too difficult.

[My-Handle]

Seems OK for me as well, just checked my bank balance (or lack thereof) via RBS online banking.

Tragically, OLB seems to be the bit or RBS that actually works best for me. I moved over to NI last year and RBS in NI (under the name Ulster Bank) seemingly has no system in common with RBS England. The systems looking after my account won't recognise an NI postcode and the systems in Ulster Bank HQ in Belfast can't pay a cheque into my account because it's English. I had a very hard time trying to keep a straight face while the bank teller tried to explain that they weren't quite the same as Royal Bank of Scotland, all the time wearing a Royal Bank of Scotland lanyard.

Will be moving my current account shortly.

[Andy Livingstone]

I understood most of it.

Then I saw the magic words "RBS England".

[My-Handle]

Re: I understood most of it.

When a large company that appears to be one entity at first glance turns out to be a mashup of sub-companies and system clusters, it becomes necessary to differentiate. I was attempting to poke a little bit of fun by making it seem more official than it seems to be. Perhaps I have a strange sense of humour :)

I believe RBS is actually in the process of fissioning off it's accounts in England and Wales and forming a separate bank under the name of Williams & Glyn (http://rbsbranchinformation.co.uk/). This may well account for the division in systems I described above and would likely be the actual name that takes the place of my somewhat flippant reference.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Can I Haz Teh Codez? How Outsourcing Transformed the Banking Industry and How We All Benefited"

Is the title of a paper Gartner won't be writing soon.

[Anonymous Coward]

RBS & Natwest have a 'Tech Team'!!

wonder if they're dressed in colorful licra jumpsuits?

[TheOtherHobbes]

Re: RBS & Natwest have a 'Tech Team'!!

They're actually dressed in giant white curly wigs, big red noses, and unfeasibly large shoes.

[Anonymous Coward]

oh, you don't get it

it's a feature: reducig the number of on-the-street branches, to re-invest the funds in order to develop an even more robust IT infrastructure for even better and more synergy-focused customer experience.

[steward]

Maybe they got the MARKETS confused with their SERVERS

RBS has predicted a major market crash this year.

Maybe they actually meant a major server crash, but misread the internal memo.

[Anonymous IV]

Re: Maybe they got the MARKETS confused with their SERVERS

It would seem that RBS was right about a "major market crash this year".

If only Fred Goodwin's pension was market-dependent....

[Anonymous Coward]

" and forming a separate bank under the name of Williams & Glyn "

So putting things back to exactly how they were 30 years ago??

I do hope so, the one time W&G cocked up a payment, the branch manager (hand) wrote a very nice letter on the banks headed paper to someone I had given a cheque that bounced and explained it was all the banks fault, and to please re-present the cheque.

Plus the W&G girls always looked sexier than the RBS ones!!!!

PLUS shortening it to W&G reminds me of my favourite claymation characters.

Divine, yes, those girls looked divine.....

[chrismeggs]

Bank on this

As far as I can recall, none of the recent stream of operational features involves an actual bug with a real financial service, mortgage, debit payment, savings account. The features seem to reside in the bulk move or access to large splurges of data. This points much more to data management than it does to financial execution.

I will reiterate my call to remove bulk data management from the banks. Allow them access still, but take care of storage in an operation that has consistently demonstrated its ability to handle this kind of stuff. Expertly. Without failure. Cheaply.

[Mog_X]

So that's why...

I had to sit outside our new house in the cold with our annoyed cats in baskets for three hours whilst we waited for the solicitors to transfer the funds so we could get access to the keys.

[Snapper]

Re: So that's why...

It sounds like it wasn't the only cold pussy you had experience of that day!