Ulster Bank reports profits increase

The problems emerged early this morning, as some customers waking up and hoping to check their pay had gone into their account were unable to log on.

Hundreds complained that they could not use NatWest’s site or its app, while others said they were not able to use their own credit cards.

Customers were unable to make payments for up to three weeks, in a problem blamed on a botched software upgrade.

Ulster Bank has reported an operating profit of £131m (€178m) for the first half of its financial year, compared to £55m (€67m) in the same period of last year. Customers experienced issues for around 50 minutes and this has now been resolved.

The RBS Group branch sale will go through sometime next year, with some customers being switched to Williams & Glyn at the same time.

It is understood that Bank of Ireland will acquire €200m worth of the portfolio, with those loans covering around 650 SME and commercial real estate customers.

It marks the latest in a series of IT issues that have beset RBS.

Just last month, 600,000 RBS and NatWest customers were left fuming after payments either never arrived or failed to send.

In London the Irish bank’s state-controlled parent RBS reported a profit of £293m or the second quarter, up 27pc on the year before, as economic recovery at home enabled it to recover loans that had been written off. Analysts had expected a loss of £260m, according to forecasts provided by RBS.