Ulster Bank provides emergency cash to customers whose money has disappeared due to ‘human error’

The issue is expected to be resolved overnight, the bank said

Only accounts in the Republic of Ireland are affected, the bank said (REUTERS)

Ulster Bank customers who have been left unable to access their funds due to “human error” will be provided with emergency cash, the lender said on Tuesday afternoon.

A spokesperson for Ulster Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland’s Irish operation, said a payment file did not process on Monday night, meaning that “some transactions applied to some customers accounts since 20 April are temporarily not showing”.

“We investigated this issue as a matter of urgency and have already taken the necessary corrective action which will see recovery actions overnight. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and no customer will be left out of pocket as a result of this issue. Emergency cash is available for impacted customers,” the spokesperson added.

The error has not affected all customers, and has only had an impact on accounts in the Republic of Ireland. For those who are unable to access their money, sums of up to €500 ($437) will be made available.

The error is not connected to the IT system issue that hit the bank in 2012, when a software update left customers without full access to banking services for weeks. Millions of consumers were left unable to make payments, while others were left without money while on holiday abroad, while some organisations were unable to meet payroll commitments or even to finalise their audited accounts, and RBS was fined £56m over the incident in 2014.

The problems also come as TSB customers deal with an online banking failure that has been going on for five days now.