Faster Payments goes slow for Lloyds customers

Lloyds Banking Group was hit by a technical problem yesterday which left customers unable to send or receive money through the Faster Payments system.

The problem hit on Monday morning and was not fixed until around 5pm. Customers took to Twitter to complain that they had not received wages or been able to pay bills through standing orders.

@jennicussick Hi, I'm LB. Sorry for any inconvenience. We're unable to confirm an exact timescale, but hope this will be resolved shortly.
- Lloyds TSB (@AskLloydsTSB) January 21, 2013

The UK Payments Council has told the BBC that the problem was not with its central Faster Payments system and only affected Lloyds.

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Comments: (1)

A Finextra member 30 January, 2013, 10:56

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This latest case of banking downtime once again serves as a reminder to businesses that missing supplier payments or failing to make the payroll run has serious knock-on effects.

Banks offer no contingency service for a business solely reliant on internet banking, aside from visiting the branch or struggling through call centre support. So if the system is not available for any reason the payment run will be compromised and the company exposed.

Direct Bacs payment solutions are a far safer way for businesses to manage their payments, with many vital advantages. In particular it enables payments to be made from multiple bank accounts thereby not tying the company into a single bank’s solution. Automation, such as advanced payment scheduling and lights-out processing, also ensures that payments are not dependent on a single individual to be on-hand to validate, authorise and submit payments on a specific date. With advanced security, extended support, automated reporting, longer submission times, configurable workflows and batch submissions available; a direct to Bacs solution ensures organisations maintain the security, confidentiality and control of their payment processing.

Contingency is also a key factor when dealing with payments. Whether contingency is having access to a Bacs approved Bureau; a replicated Disaster Recovery environment or a registered service with a Bacs solution provider, every organisation needs to ensure that it is never at risk of not having access to its own funds and that business finance processes can continue regardless.

There is no longer any reason for payments to provide the weak link in the financial transaction process. This step is perhaps the most critical aspect of any business and should not fall victim to third-party delays and downtime.