HR Industry News

Banking system hitch delays payment for over 400,000

— 30 March 2007 —

The Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) has confirmed that 400,000 employees within the UK will not be paid today as a result of a problem with the BACS system. This represents about 1.6% of the total payments which will be processed through BACS for today.

The BACS system allows for financial transactions to be processed electronically. But a software problem which was discovered on Wednesday, means that the system has been running slowly, and that payments have not been sent out on time. The problem is believed to have been resolved, but may still have repercussions in the form of delayed payments for some.

Apacs has apologised for the inconvenience, saying: "All banks are aware of what has happened and are working together with those corporate customers who have been unable to pay their employees to ensure that those payments are made at the next available date. We are confident that all affected individuals will have received their normal salary payment by Monday 2 April 2007."

The payments association also indicated that employees should not "suffer any charges for being overdrawn, where this has been caused by the missed salary payment."

Ceridian worked closely with BACS on Wednesday evening to ensure all files relating to payments being made today were accepted into the system. We can now confirm that all files have been accepted.

Should you believe that your company has been affected by this issue, please advise your employees to contact their banks.

Meanwhile employees have been advised to withdraw cash over the counter for use this weekend, as cash machines could refuse to authorise withdrawals.

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