RBS boss apologises for 'unacceptable' card glitch

Royal Bank of Scotland boss admitted that it had failed to invest properly in systems for decades as he apologised for an embarrassing IT failure on the busiest online shopping day of the year.

Economics Editor Richard Edgar reports:

The glitch left customers of RBS and its NatWest subsidiary unable to use credit and debit cards for three hours yesterday evening while the banks' websites and smartphone apps were also affected.

The IT failure left some customers unable to pay after filling up with petrol or to settle restaurant bills while others were forced to abandon full shopping trolleys at the check-out. It was the latest in a string of computer meltdowns for RBS.

It came on so-called Cyber Monday, when retailers expected the highest number of online transactions to take place ahead of Christmas - and prompted a flurry of card users to take to Twitter to vent their anger.

RBS said today that services had returned to normal, apologised to customers, and said it would cover those left out of pocket.