Nationwide admits accounts error

Almost £400,000 withdrawn by Nationwide customers in Northern Ireland has not been debited to their accounts, the building society admitted today.

Around 7,500 account holders who withdrew money from Northern Bank machines during the past four months have been affected by the technical error.

The problem was discovered after routine audit of cash transfers between the Nationwide and other banks in the north. The transactions, which total an estimated £375,000, will now be taken from accounts on March 10th.

A spokesman for the building society said it would not charge anybody who went overdrawn as a result of the IT glitch and apologised for the error.

"The error was a result of a technical problem which meant people who took money from Northern Bank machines got their cash, but the transaction wasn't debited to their account. This was our fault and nothing to do with the Northern Bank," he said.