According to The Telegraph, Santander is attempting to claw back from its competitors a sum of £130 million, which was erroneously sent to 75,000 accounts on Christmas day, as the result of a payments duplication.
While funds were transferred on behalf of 2,000 corporate customers, the bank remains out of pocket, since the cash was taken from its own reserves.
Santander told The Telegraph that the payments were duplicated because of a scheduling issue, which was “quickly identified and rectified.”
“We’re sorry that due to a technical issue some payments from our corporate clients were incorrectly duplicated on the recipients’ accounts,” said the bank.
An executive at a rival bank told The Telegraph: “If we don’t return the money to Santander, it might be us next month if something goes wrong…It’s likely the funds will be returned next week.”
There may be complications, however. Speaking to The Times – which first broke the Christmas bonus blunder – one lender said it would be reluctant to give the funds back if it meant that account holders who had already spent the cash were pushed into their overdraft.
Other major banks have commented that those who have already spent the money and cannot afford to return it, should be taken through an alternative process.