Security News > 2021 > May > NatWest Bank scheduled payments bug may have cost you money
In emails sent by NatWest and seen by BleepingComputer, the system malfunction meant that the standing orders set up by banking customers over a period of 11 months did not correctly record the number of automated payments that were to be debited, or on what dates should the debits stop.
This means automated payments could have continued to be made from the customer accounts, even after a standing order had expired, costing customers money.
Today, NatWest has emailed multiple customers and urged them to check their bank account for payments debited since 23rd March 2020.
Whereas a Direct Debit can be requested for a customer bank account by any organization, standing orders can only be initiated by the customer themselves.
In emails sent by NatWest today, as seen by BleepingComputer, the bank states that due to a system error that lasted over 11 months, the total number of payments that should be debited or the date when these payments should end was not correctly recorded for standing orders.
For standing orders initiated between these two dates, the bank failed to properly capture the end date for the order or the total number of payments the customer had requested.