NatWest makes light of network crash

NatWest played down the impact of its retail banking network crashing early last week.

Microsoft reportedly sent a team of specialists into the bank to help track down the problem. IBM was also believed to be working at the bank.

A spokesman for NatWest said the problem has been overstated. He claimed it resulted from the installation of new software into the branches on Tuesday night. Admitting that the network had suffered problems, he insisted that switching to contingency software restored the network on Wednesday. He said the problem was not related to Windows NT but to NatWest's own software.

The spokesman admitted some customers were still suffering delays due to the outage but said the bank was working to clear up the last of the problems. He denied Microsoft had sent in a special troubleshooting team, saying: "We have people from Microsoft working with us all the time - no one extra was involved."