Does Lloyds Bank Computer Take The Weekend Off?

Shylock_249

I've just gone into Lloyds Online banking to make a 20k deposit into an ISA in a building society for tomorrow (6 Apr) by Faster Payment.  I noticed that having completed the procedure the on screen message said if the payment date falls on a weekend payment will be made on the next working day!

Does the last man at work in Lloyds on a Friday night turn off the computer then turn off the lights, lock the door and go home?  If so, let’s hope he doesn’t fall sick on the weekend or we’ll all be stuffed.

It seems strange to me that Lloyds is NOT prepared to make Faster Payment transactions on a weekend.  Is it because they think the 20k in their pocket is better than in the nominated building society?

I know from dealing with Lloyds that they are pretty unhelpful; an example when I was working in finance we were liable for instant cash and bank checks and as such needed a current bank statement to do the reconciliation.  I asked Lloyds for statements on 7th, 14th, 21st and last day of the month.  They couldn't/wouldn't provide.  The only thing they could offer were (example) statements on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Thursday of each week.

Hoenir

Shylock_249 said:

It seems strange to me that Lloyds is NOT prepared to make Faster Payment transactions on a weekend.  Is it because they think the 20k in their pocket is better than in the nominated building society?

Weekends are not a working day as far as the clearing bank system is concerned.  The nominated building society will itself bank with one of the majors. 

wmb194

Shylock_249 said:

I've just gone into Lloyds Online banking to make a 20k deposit into an ISA in a building society for tomorrow (6 Apr) by Faster Payment.  I noticed that having completed the procedure the on screen message said if the payment date falls on a weekend payment will be made on the next working day!

Does the last man at work in Lloyds on a Friday night turn off the computer then turn off the lights, lock the door and go home?  If so, let’s hope he doesn’t fall sick on the weekend or we’ll all be stuffed.

It seems strange to me that Lloyds is NOT prepared to make Faster Payment transactions on a weekend.  Is it because they think the 20k in their pocket is better than in the nominated building society?

I know from dealing with Lloyds that they are pretty unhelpful; an example when I was working in finance we were liable for instant cash and bank checks and as such needed a current bank statement to do the reconciliation.  I asked Lloyds for statements on 7th, 14th, 21st and last day of the month.  They couldn't/wouldn't provide.  The only thing they could offer were (example) statements on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Thursday of each week.

It'll make FP transfers at the weekend but they'll be dated Monday or the next working day if it's a bank holiday. If you send money to e.g., Chase on a Saturday Chase will credit it immediately and have it available to spend. 

This might be moot anyway as many BS' won't credit deposits received at the weekend until the next working day: which BS?

Rob5342

The banking system does seem to have lots of hangovers from the days when things were done manually, even though it must have all been automated for almost half a century.

SiliconChip

Rob5342 said:

The banking system does seem to have lots of hangovers from the days when things were done manually, even though it must have all been automated for almost half a century.

While this is true the automation that was done (actually a little more than half a century ago, in the past I worked on computer programmes that were started in the early years of the 1970s) was entirely based on replicating the manual processes in place at the time. While some challenger banks have created their systems to work in a different way the cost of legacy banks completely altering the way they work would be very high, and unless customers (i.e.you) are prepared to pay for it it's not likely to happen any time soon.

Sarahspangles

SiliconChip said:

Rob5342 said:

The banking system does seem to have lots of hangovers from the days when things were done manually, even though it must have all been automated for almost half a century.

While this is true the automation that was done (actually a little more than half a century ago, in the past I worked on computer programmes that were started in the early years of the 1970s) was entirely based on replicating the manual processes in place at the time. While some challenger banks have created their systems to work in a different way the cost of legacy banks completely altering the way they work would be very high, and unless customers (i.e.you) are prepared to pay for it it's not likely to happen any time soon.

I’ve worked with developers who have experience on banks’ systems and they’ve said the same - the risks associated with changing the underlying processing system are too high, although the interfaces for staff and customers are being improved all the time. Another consideration is that the legacy systems can actually be faster than modern alternatives. 

p00hsticks

Sarahspangles said:

SiliconChip said:

Rob5342 said:

The banking system does seem to have lots of hangovers from the days when things were done manually, even though it must have all been automated for almost half a century.

While this is true the automation that was done (actually a little more than half a century ago, in the past I worked on computer programmes that were started in the early years of the 1970s) was entirely based on replicating the manual processes in place at the time. While some challenger banks have created their systems to work in a different way the cost of legacy banks completely altering the way they work would be very high, and unless customers (i.e.you) are prepared to pay for it it's not likely to happen any time soon.

I’ve worked with developers who have experience on banks’ systems and they’ve said the same - the risks associated with changing the underlying processing system are too high, although the interfaces for staff and customers are being improved all the time. Another consideration is that the legacy systems can actually be faster than modern alternatives. 

Yes, I worked on card processing systems during the introduction of chip and PIN technology and it took a whole team of us years of preparation, recoding and testing - and that was just for one merchant acquirer. Even though payment transfers were sent electronically the format was still (and still will be) based on the days where data would have been loaded onto magnetic tape and physically couriered to the other financial institution. 

The work involved in making any changes at all to our banking systems - which in many cases now are all to a common European or global standard - is incredibly complicated and costly.    

Sarahspangles

p00hsticks said:

Yes, I worked on card processing systems during the introduction of chip and PIN technology and it took a whole team of us years of preparation, recoding and testing - and that was just for one merchant acquirer. Even though payment transfers were sent electronically the format was still (and still will be) based on the days where data would have been loaded onto magnetic tape and physically couriered to the other financial institution. 

The work involved in making any changes at all to our banking systems - which in many cases now are all to a common European or global is incredibly complicated and costly.    

I worked with one team who had to recruit someone who was already in their 70s to maintain a very niche warehouse db system. The guy liked to come out of retirement every couple of years to keep his hand in, and then travel the world on the takings. He had a resemblance (physically, plus accent) to Lance-Corporal Jones. When I left they were considering creating a couple of Apprentice roles as all the in-house staff were entitled to retire within five years.

born_again

It is also possible that a payment to a ISA will go into a internal holding account before reaching your ISA account. Just the same as credit card payments do.
So it will have left lloyds as requested, but is now at the B/S waiting on them to work it.

boingy

It does seem very archaic. In a similar vein the Companies House website, the govt's register for limited companies, used to only be searchable inside office hours! I used to wonder if they had an army of ninjas hovering over paper filing cabinets ready to respond to a search request...

TheBanker

Payments systems are changing - have a read here: https://www.psr.org.uk/our-work/new-payments-architecture-npa/

But note that this project is now almost a decade old, and hasn't yet actually changed anything. It's really, really complex.