Website problem hits Bank of Scotland customers

Bank branches are closed for the new year holiday

The Bank of Scotland has said customers have been affected by a problem with its website.

Online banking services were first reported to be unavailable early on New Year's Day.

At about 11:00, an update on the bank's Twitter feed said it did not have an estimated time for when the website would be working again.

It added that staff were working on the problem and they hoped to have it "back to normal soon".

At 13:20, the bank said it believed the problem had been resolved.

The problem has also affected Lloyds and Halifax customers.

The Lloyds Group has more than 13 million active online customers - and more than nine million are active mobile users.

A Bank of Scotland spokeswoman said: "We're aware that some of our customers are experiencing problems logging on to Online Banking. We're working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and apologise for any inconvenience caused."

In response to one customer who asked whether the bank will be responsible for any late fees that they might get as a result of the problem, Lloyds Bank tweeted: "If you do receive any late payment fees as a result please let us know and we will look into for you at the time".

In October, MPs condemned the level of IT failures at banks, saying in a Treasury Committee report that the frequency of online banking crashes and customer disruption was "unacceptable".

Major banks typically suffer more than 10 online outages a month.