A SENIOR CENTRAL Bank official has said the institution cannot guarantee the chaos at Ulster Bank will not be replicated at other lenders in future.

However, the Central Bank will be checking the systems of Ireland’s major banks to ensure they are sufficiently tested to prevent a repeat of the chaos that has hit thousands of account holders.

Bernard Sheridan, director of consumer protection at the central financial institution, told RTÉ’s This Week that officials are currently “not satisfied” as to the reasons behind the software failure at Ulster Bank.

Ulster Bank has said that customers will continue to suffer disruptions this week, with most expected to have a normal service back by the beginning of next week.

Branches will continue to open late until 7pm today and tomorrow. The bank said it would confirm today whether late opening would continue in the latter half of this week.

Bernard Sheridan said that the Central Bank is beginning an investigation into the disruption.

He confirmed that it will then be overseeing a “restitution programme” to compensate not only Ulster Bank customers, but also those of other banks who have also been affected by delayed payments.

The Central Bank will be reviewing the systems and testing procedures in place at all banks, Sheridan said.

We can’t go to the point where we’re there on site testing their systems, but if we’re not satisfied in terms of their operations and the resources that are allocated to different aspects of their work, we can require them to improve there.

He acknowledged that the Central Bank “can’t give an assurance that it’s never going to happen again”.

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