Millions miss pay after NAB's second meltdown

Millions of employees have been left without their pay amid mixed messages from the National Australia Bank Ltd over when it will fix the fault that has crashed its payments system.

Government agency Centrelink said NAB had advised it that it has fixed the fault that occurred during the overnight batch settlement system, which affected thousands of customers of most Australian banks. However, the bank itself says it is still working on the problem that has stopped the batch system that settles transactions between NAB and other banks nationwide.

NAB's ATM network is still working and cash can be withdrawn from NAB accounts but payroll and other transactions have not been processed.

NAB on Friday alerted customers via messages on Twitter and its internet banking website that delays in transaction processing had occurred and some customers' account balances may not be up to date.

Shortly after midday the bank issued a media statement saying it is working to rectify the matter, but by 5pm the issue had not been resolved, according to a customer notification on the bank's website.

However, a Centrelink spokesman told AAP the government agency had been advised by NAB the fault has already been fixed.

"We've been told by NAB that the problem has been fixed and payments are now being processed," he said.

"There may be some delayed payments but they are all now going through."

Read part 1 of CIO Australia’s three part series, NAB private Cloud builds new paradigm.

Centrelink received calls from customers earlier on Friday advising they had not received their scheduled payments.

NAB advised all financial institutions of technical difficulties, according to a Bank of Queensland (BOQ) internal email to staff.

Transactions to and from NAB accounts had not been processed and NAB was unable to confirm when the transactions would be updated, BOQ told its employees.

NAB did not return calls and comment was sought also from Macquarie Group, Citi, and Credit Union Australia.

Commonwealth Bank (CBA), ANZ Banking Group, Westpac Banking Corporation, HSBC Australia and Suncorp Group confirmed their customers had been affected and they were working with NAB to fix the fault.

Delays in the processing of payrolls had occurred, with employees who banked with NAB not receiving their scheduled payments, the banks said.

Other transactions dated Thursday may be affected, Westpac said.

NAB's payments glitch is its second in five months to spread across the Australian banking system and comes after NAB advised 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.

Read part 2 of CIO Australia’s three part series, NAB private Cloud builds new paradigm.

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