We are aware of a problem with the processing of a number of salary payments.  This will unfortunately mean that up to 400,000 customers will not receive their monthly salary as expected, tomorrow, 30 March 2007.  This represents about 1.6% of the total payments which will be processed through BACS for tomorrow.

The entire banking and payments industry is extremely sorry that this has happened and we are working to resolve the issue and limit the impact on individual customers.

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.

Unfortunately some personal customers may experience problems, for example, withdrawing funds from their current account, depending on their personal circumstances. 

Our clear advice to customers is that if they have any concerns, they should contact their own bank immediately.  Our clear priority is to ensure that customers are not out-of-pocket and that any customers affected will not miss any payments being made (like monthly mortgage payments) or suffer any charges for being overdrawn, where this has been caused by the missed salary payment.

Again we apologise to affected customers.