Member Article

Bank glitch delays wages

Up to 400,000 people are facing delays in their salary payments because of a problem with an electronic banking system. The Banks Automated Clearing System (BACS), which is responsible for processing financial transactions, has been running slowly and has not sent out all payments in time. Banks are trying to ensure direct debits are paid as usual although the transactions can be refused if it means an account becoming overdrawn.

A spokeswoman for payments association Apacs said affected workers should be paid by Monday. Sandra Quinn said any customers who were concerned should contact their bank immediately, and that employees would be refunded any charges if their accounts were overdrawn or if they breached their overdraft limit as a result of the problem. She said there was no pattern to the glitch and any company that had been affected by the problem should have informed its employees. People who needed cash for the weekend were advised to withdraw it over the counter, as cash machines could refuse the withdrawal.

Ms Quinn said: “The entire banking and payments industry is extremely sorry that this has happened and we are working to resolve the issue and limit the impact on individual customers.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .