London: British financial regulators have fined state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland a combined £56 million for a series of IT failures that left customers unable to access services, they said Thursday.
The fines, worth the equivalent of $87.6 million or 70 million euros, occurred in June 2012 for failures at also RBS units NatWest bank and Ulster Bank.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined RBS £42 million while the Prudential Regulation Authority, which is overseen by the Bank of England, imposed a penalty totalling £14 million, the watchdogs said in statements.
"Modern banking depends on effective, reliable and resilient IT systems," said Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FCA.
"The Banks` failures meant millions of customers were unable to carry out the banking transactions which keep businesses and people`s everyday lives moving."
RBS chairman Philip Hampton on Thursday said that the failures had "revealed unacceptable weaknesses" in the bank`s IT systems.
RBS has already paid more than £70 million in compensation to customers affected by the incidents.
The bank is about 80-percent owned by the British government after it was rescued with £45.5 billion of taxpayers` cash during the global financial crisis, making it the world`s biggest-ever banking bailout.