MSE News: NatWest and RBS wages, benefits and other payments 'missing'

beamerguy

keithyno.1 wrote: »

This bank really is a joke!!

I worked for RBS back in 2012 when the last major incident happened, it was a nightmare for the poor customer-facing staff and those in call centres, who had to deal with all the flak while the top bosses hid away in their posh offices in London & Edinburgh.

The trouble is, the main computer system that is the engine room, if you like, for the running of all accounts, including the nightly processing of payments, is simply known in the bank as 'Back Office.' It's an old, creaking COBALT system which was first introduced in the 1970's (honestly!) and which essentially has never been majorly overhauled and updated.

The truth is, it should have been binned many years ago, and a completely new system worthy of the 21st century (at least) designed and installed. But all they've done for years is keep patching it up, and placing greater and greater demands on it - all customers who use online and mobile banking for the day-to-day running of their account, well every change you make, such as making a payment, transferring money between accounts, setting up a standing order, cancelling a Direct Debit etc, well it all ultimately feeds through to Back Office which is where the actual changes to the account take place.

They've supposedly spent 'hundreds of millions' on their systems since the last major outage in 2012, not to mention being fined £56 million by the regulators, but this stuff keeps happening TIME AND TIME again.

The only way they'll REALLY learn is when RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank customers start to switch to other banks in their thousands...then they might, just MIGHT, really make an effort to sort it all out once and for all.

So, my advice is to any customer of RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank is SWITCH NOW - you can't lose, there are LOADS better deals for current account holders who switch to the likes of Santander, TSB and First Direct..Martin outlines them nearly every week in his email.

DO IT NOW - SWITCH!!!!

WELL SAID Keith, and people take note, switch to a bank who live in this century, not the last one.

I wonder who will buy such an incompetent bank ?

beamerguy

colsten wrote: »

Have they said which weekend?

Doubt if they know themselves, sums up the RBS group

pinkdalek

beamerguy wrote: »

WELL SAID Keith, and people take note, switch to a bank who live in this century, not the last one.

I wonder who will buy such an incompetent bank ?

Well I offered £100 and said I could send payment today, but sadly it went missing..........:rotfl:

System

Apparently the initial issue has been fixed, so i'm hoping i will still get paid tomorrow :mad:

As soon as i've paid off my overdraft i'm moving banks I had a half hour call from natwest earlier in the week, they were telling me about how they aim to be the most helpful bank and basically what could they do to improve things :rotfl:

worldtraveller

IMHO this is yet another exposure of a, frankly pathetic, big corporation, with absolutely no idea, whatsoever, how to handle major problems in their bloted, out of touch, company structure.

In the last episode in 2012 they exposed themselves as totally useless and pointless in handling a crisis. It took days, for someone, even slightly senior in their corporate bureaucracy, to even accept their massive shortcomings to their customers.

They really are a useless corporation and the sooner people accept that, and move their business elsewhere, the better!

agrinnall

keithyno.1 wrote: »

The trouble is, the main computer system that is the engine room, if you like, for the running of all accounts, including the nightly processing of payments, is simply known in the bank as 'Back Office.' It's an old, creaking COBALT system which was first introduced in the 1970's (honestly!) and which essentially has never been majorly overhauled and updated.

COBOL, not COBALT (although in fact the core code is Assembler).

beamerguy wrote: »

WELL SAID Keith, and people take note, switch to a bank who live in this century, not the last one.

So that rules out all of the big banks, whose core processing is also done on systems that have been running for 20 or more years.

colsten

worldtraveller wrote: »

They really are a useless corporation and the sooner people accept that, and move their business elsewhere, the better!

When you have finished insulting any and all of the tens of thousands of people working for RBS, 99.9%+ of whom are not responsible for this latest issue, perhaps you could suggest what you have in mind for them once RBS has 'moved their business elsewhere'? Should they all go on benefits? Have you arranged for retraining and jobs for them elsewhere? What are you going to do with the company's real estate? Which bank(s) have you lined up to take on all of RBS' customers?

Perhaps you could offer some consultancy to the RBS Execs on how to how to "handle major problems in their bloted (did you mean bloated?), out of touch, company structure"?

SnowTiger

Ffrees, which uses Natwest to hold accounts, also appears to be affected. https://www.ffrees.co.uk/service-status:

Problems with payments in via BACS

We’re currently experiencing a problem with one of our suppliers and payments coming into your Ffrees account this morning. This is being worked on as a matter of urgency to get it fixed. We’re really sorry for any trouble this may cause you.

SnowTiger

agrinnall wrote: »

COBOL, not COBALT (although in fact the core code is Assembler).

Really? Wow.

Perhaps it's a case of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Erm...

worldtraveller

colsten wrote: »

When you have finished insulting any and all of the tens of thousands of people working for RBS, 99.9%+ of whom are not responsible for this latest issue, perhaps you could suggest what you have in mind for them once RBS has 'moved their business elsewhere'? Should they all go on benefits? Have you arranged for retraining and jobs for them elsewhere? What are you going to do with the company's real estate? Which bank(s) have you lined up to take on all of RBS' customers?

Perhaps you could offer some consultancy to the RBS Execs on how to how to "handle major problems in their bloted (did you mean bloated?), out of touch, company structure"?

Firstly, your pedant comment in your last paragraph, about what was clearly a simple typo, immediately shows me where you're coming from.

Secondly, you clearly need to read my post again. I never said anything whatsoever about RBS staff moving anywhere. What I clearly said was that RBS customers should take their business elsewhere.

Thirdly, you appear to be pretty arrogant about RBS and their staff and that, for some, IMHO, unfathomable reason, they should have special treatment, over and above anyone else in business and have some sort of automatic "retraining" & "jobs". Whether they are individually "responsible", or not, is totally irrelevant. You work for the entity. If you have an inefficient corporation, however large, it needs to be changed. If it doesn't, it will probably fail, like any other company. However, let's be honest here, it's not a level playing field, since RBS have already been subsidised to the tune of around £1,500 by every taxpayer in the UK!

Consultancy? To be honest, I wouldn't waste my time. I'm sure I'd be pulling my hair out, attending numerous, pointless, "meetings", full of numerous, pointless, people, and getting nowhere, whatsoever.

There are plenty of banks, with far better service, bending over backwards to take the business of current RBS customers. This is yet another great time to do it.