NAB restores computer glitch

Millions of National Australia Bank customers should finally be able to access money today that was not available to them because of a computer glitch.

NAB alerted customers yesterday via Twitter and through its internet banking site that delays in the processing of payrolls and other transactions had occurred, resulting in some account balances not being up to date.

Commonwealth, ANZ, Westpac, HSBC and Suncorp Group customers were also affected.

NAB says a computer glitch that prevented customers from withdrawing money from their accounts had been fixed, and more than 130 branches will be open today to assist customers who were affected.

The National Australia Bank says one hundred of its branches will be open today to deal with any problems arising from

yesterday's computer system crash that left large numbers of people without pay and affected a wide range of bank transactions.

NAB says it has pulled in additional staff to deal with customers over the weekend.

NAB's payments glitch is its second in five months to spread across the Australian banking system and comes after NAB told internet banking customers to expect delays on payments and bills during the Easter weekend.

An IT fault with NAB's payment processing system caused havoc last November when NAB was unable to process transactions, including EFTPOS and ATM transactions, for more than a week.

NAB's IT woes went global in 2005 when an IT upgrade for its two UK units resulted in the miscalculation of interest charges for customers with tracker and variable rate mortgages.

The NAB-owned Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks caused outrage amongst customers last year when they demanded customers make up the difference if they were undercharged.

NAB said in July that some of its UK customers would be offered refunds.

HSBC's local unit uses NAB to process its transactions in Australia.

An HSBC Australia spokesman declined to comment on whether HSBC would now review its processing arrangements as a result of glitch.