Hester gives up RBS bonus

NatWest has commissioned an independent audit to determine what went wrong when thousands of customers were left unable to access cash earlier this month.

In an email to customers, the RBS-owned bank said:

Ulster Bank chief executive Jim Brown said tonight he would be turning down this year's annual bonus after a computer meltdown left thousands of people across Ireland without cash. He said:

Tonight's decision came as politicians from north and south of the border called for him to turn down his bonus.

The bank initially estimated that about 100,000 customers across the country had been affected by the error, some with limited or no access to their funds at all.

Mr Brown told an Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) committee the figure is much higher than originally believed and that at least half of Ireland's 1.1 million customer base has suffered.

Ulster Bank chief executive Jim Brown said he was turning down his annual bonus following the IT meltdown which left hundreds of thousands of customers without cash.

Earlier today in the House of Lords Labour called on the Government to intervene to help Northern Ireland residents suffering as a result of the ongoing failures at the bank. Lord McAvoy hit out at Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson saying:

RBS have released the following statement about Ulster bank services:

"Resolving the issue for our customers is the top priority for RBS Group and significant resources have been shifted from within the Group to Ulster Bank.

"We now expect that next week (commencing 9 July) will be the final week of any significant delays for Ulster Bank customers. We expect gradual, but significant and noticeable improvements throughout the remainder of this week and next.

"It is our expectation that by the week of the 16 July the vast majority of customers will return to a normal service, barring any residual reconciliation required. We will continue to provide updates daily on our progress."

Stephen Hester told the BBC: "I think it is inappropriate for me to have a bonus this year. We have let our customers down.

"That may have arisen from old systems and things that were from before my time, but I think we could reasonably have been expected to have improved things since then and clearly we didn't improve them enough.

"So it wouldn't cross my mind to have a bonus this year."

RBS said today that whilst the "vast majority" of NatWest and RBS accounts have been updated and are back to normal, a small number of transactions remain unprocessed and Ulster Bank customers may face delays for the rest of the week.

Some of those Ulster customers have taken to Twitter to express their disappointment:

The Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee today wrote to the Chief Executive of RBS Group, Stephen Hester, and to the Chairman of the FSA, Lord Turner, outlining a number of specific issues the Committee feels need to be addressed with regards to the ongoing IT issues.

Commenting on the letters the Chairman Andrew Tyrie said:

RBS has said that whilst the "vast majority" of NatWest and RBS accounts have been updated and are back to normal, a small number of transactions remain unprocessed. Ulster Bank customers may face delays for the rest of the week, however.

A statement from the company reads:

Police are warning NatWest customers that they may be targeted by fake emails designed to play on their anxiety following recent technical problems at the bank. This is the advice being given if you receive such an email:

• Do not click on any links in the scam email
• Do not reply to the email or contact the senders in any way
• If you have clicked on a link in the email, do not supply any information on the website that may open
• Do not open any attachments that arrive with the email

You can also report the incident to the police Action Fraud service by calling 0300 123 2040 or by using their online reporting tool.