RBS's Ulster Bank to pay out 'tens of millions' for IT glitch

The head of Royal Bank of Scotland's Ulster Bank said it will pay out "tens of millions" of euros in compensation following a computer systems fiasco, which will be fully resolved within the next few weeks, its chief executive Jim Brown said yesterday.

"It's going to be a considerable sum of money, it will be in the tens of millions," said Mr Brown, who waived his bonus a fortnight ago.

It has taken the bank nearly a month to resolve a computer glitch, which saw salaries fail to appear in accounts, holidaymakers unable to access cash at overseas ATMs and customers' household bills go unpaid.

It has been a public-relations disaster for the bank, Ireland's third-largest lender, which like its UK sister bank, NatWest, battled to get on top of a huge backlog of failed payments.

Mr Brown said that while its systems are now running normally, there remain issues with duplicated transactions and it will take several weeks before problems with customers' accounts are fully resolved.