LONDON — Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) warned Monday that the computer glitch that left millions of customers without access to their money could take several more days to fully resolve, as the bank continues to grapple with a problem that could cost it millions of pounds to resolve and cause significant damage to its reputation.
The 82 percent government-owned bank said in a statement Sunday that payment problems at its NatWest bank should be largely resolved by Monday, but there “will be bumps in the road.” NatWest’s 1,200 branches opened early Monday morning to deal with customers struggling after a backlog of payments transactions built up following a computer error last Tuesday.
A spokesman for the bank said Monday it was dealing with the problem on a day-by-day basis and that it could not quantify the cost of the problem or how long it would take to fully iron out.
The banking group, which holds close to 17 million business and personal accounts in the UK, previously said that a large proportion of its customers were affected by the payments problem.
On Monday, an RBS spokesman declined to comment on the exact nature of the computer failure except to say that it originated from a software program that handles overnight payments. The IT issue was being handled in the UK, the spokesman said.
The fiasco comes as RBS braces for increasing competition in the UK retail banking sector. A series of new banks, including Virgin Money and Tesco, are set to enter the market soon and attempt to steal market share with the promise of better customer service. Since its bailout by the government in 2008, RBS has cut 36,000 jobs to try to return to profitability. Unions previously complained that the staff cuts reduced customer service. RBS declined to comment.
However, some analysts played down the financial impact of the problem. “I would estimate that the cost could run into the tens of millions of pounds,” Ian Gordon at Investec said. “If you ask about the reputation damage, that is harder.”
Gordon said that the issue did not sabotage the investment case in RBS. The bank’s shares were down 0.5 percent early Monday.