London (AFP) - Ireland's central bank handed a record fine to Ulster Bank on Wednesday for an IT meltdown that left 600,000 customers unable to use their accounts for a month.
The 3.5 million euro ($4.4 million) fine is the largest ever handed out by the central bank and was the maximum it could impose.
"The Firm failed to have robust governance arrangements in relation to its IT systems and controls and... as a result, a major and prolonged IT failure occurred," the Central Bank of Ireland said in a statement.
As well as causing "widespread and significant loss and inconvenience" to customers, the meltdown also "threatened confidence in the operation of the retail banking sector" as it prevented payments clearing, it added.
The failure of Ulster Bank's software in June 2012 meant was caused by difficulties with an upgrade, and meant customer could not access ATMs, use online banking, or pay for goods and services among other services for 28 days.
Owned by the British state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank has since paid 59 million euros to affected customers in compensation.
"Our customers need to be able to rely on our systems and in this instance we let them down," Ulster Bank chief executive Jim Brown said in a statement, saying the bank had taken steps to ensure such a failure could not recur.
"The inconvenience that was caused to our customers went to the heart of the trust they have in us as a bank and we are quite clear that they should never have to experience anything like this ever again."
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