Barclays Business Account - money went awol for 1 month

K1_se

Firstly, Apologies if this is in the wrong place. I was looking for some views on the below and would be most grateful of any advice.

I started my own business back in April and won my first project with a large global company for the development of online software. I use an offshore development company and tied up the invoicing between the client and my supplier so that there were no hiccups (i.e. client paid me half, i pay supplier half etc etc).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I transferred to my supplier $10,600 on the 6th June (payment for first invoice), direct from Barclays online. The money immediately left my account so I didnt think anything more about it.

2 weeks later, the supplier chases me to ask where thier money is. I explain its showing as transferred and has left my account and they agree to wait a little while and also check thier end. Come 6th July, suppler is getting slightly irritated so I ring up Barclays and ask them what is going on.

Turns out that there was an error with their online banking that ommitted the account number and so the money got sent to the beneficiary bank (also a Barclays I might add, but overseas) with no account to go to. They then sat on it for 10 days before returning the money to my bank, who should then have informed me that the money had been sent back, but overlooked it and hence just kept the money in limbo.

So I have made a complaint and now the complaints team have come back to me, tail between thier legs, admitting liability and asking what would compensate the inconvenience. I have told them that there has been additional resource overheads as a direct cost to my business caused by a delay in the project, but also stated that it has halted my project for the best part of 2 weeks and affected my reputation.

So, my question, does anyone have any experience on where i stand with this. Taking the money out of my account, not delivering it to the beneficiary bank (or ommitting the account details so it couldnt be completed) and not advising me of this. Do I have a case for compensation? They are asking me to email in an explanation of what I think they should do to compensate this, but I would really like to understand how they are regulated around this kind of thing and what thier liability could be?

Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

S.