Chaos at cash machines: Computer fault halts RBS withdrawals… While the boss picks up £700,000 bonus

Customers _______________ furious yesterday after their bank left them stranded without cash for the second time in less than a year. They bombarded Royal Bank of Scotland message boards and social networks after an IT glitch meant they could not _____________ cash machines. Telephone and online banking services were also disrupted by the problem, _______________ began around 9pm on Wednesday.

State-backed RBS, which includes NatWest and Ulster Bank, ______________ a hardware fault was to blame and claimed the problem was rectified within two hours. It apologised for an ‘unacceptable failure’ and promised __________compensate customers for any losses they suffered. But RBS insisted there was no link to last summer’s chaos, when a botched software upgrade left 16million RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers unable to make or receive _______________ – in some cases for several weeks.

RBS, which received a £45.5billion bail-out from taxpayers in 2008, has already set aside £175million to compensate ________________ for June’s chaos. It could not say how _______________ were affected by Wednesday night’s problems but a message board on NatWest’s website was swamped with complaints, some of which referred to the company’s ‘helpful banking’ slogan.

One customer wrote: ‘I can’t get to ______________ as bank card was declined on train, so lost a day’s wage and you expect me to pay to call for info!’ Another said: ‘Really upset that NatWest have failed again. We understand that things sometimes go ____________ – but ‘helpful banking’ is all about helping people and communication with them. After last year’s fiasco I stuck with you, but now I’m not going to.’

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