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Jan 26 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of customers of banksowned by Britain's Lloyds Banking Group were unable touse their debit and ATM cards for several hours on Sunday as anapparent technical glitch hit its system.
"We apologise that earlier today, between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.,some customers were unable to complete their debit cardtransactions," Lloyds said in a statement.
"Although the majority of transactions were unaffected, weare very sorry for the inconvenience that this will havecaused."
Approximately half of the company's 7,000 ATMs wereaffected, Lloyds said, adding that the problem was resolved by7.30 p.m.
A similar problem hit Royal Bank of Scotland inDecember, leaving 1 million customers unable to withdraw cash orpay for goods on one of the busiest online shopping days of theyear. Its chief executive later said the bank had neglected itstechnology for years.
The Financial Conduct Authority has been scrutinising theresilience of all banks' technology to address concerns thatoutdated systems and a lack of investment could cause morecrashes.
A software upgrade gone wrong in June 2012 cost RBS 175million pounds ($286 million) in compensation for customers andextra payments to staff after the bank opened branches forlonger in response.
