Mobile banking apps recover from glitches

The mobile banking apps of several big banks have been affected by glitches.

RBS, Barclays and Santander all acknowledged problems after complaints by their customers.

RBS, which includes NatWest, said the problems with the apps were due to too many people trying to check their accounts to see how much they had been paid by their employers.

All three banks apologised but said their mobile services were now working as normal.

RBS explained via its Twitter feed that "high traffic" had been responsible for the logjam.

"We are currently experiencing record usage of our mobile banking app. Over 5,500 customers are logging on every minute," it explained.

NatWest told customers: "If you're having difficulty with our mobile app, online banking, telephone banking and ATMs are all working normally."

Santander said its mobile banking app had stalled but was now back to normal: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused while we worked as fast possible to fix the problem."

"Customers were still able to transact using Santander telephone banking, Santander branches and online banking during this time."

Barclays says use of its app is gradually returning to normal.

Last December hundred of thousands of RBS customers were left unable to use their credit and debit cards for three hours, with some saying funds had vanished from their account, because of a computer failure.