Natwest and RBS urge customers to use their smartphones as bank systems fail

NatWest and RBS appeared to be overcoming a major meltdown of its online banking system this afternoon, with cash reportedly flowing back into customer accounts.

The bank admitted on Twitter that the failure was "an unacceptable inconvenience for our customers for which we apologise."

In a sign of the changing nature of banking, RBS urged customers whose accounts were frozen to use its mobile apps to generate a secure temporary PIN number for use in its cash machines.

The application generates a secure cash code that allows users to withdraw from £10 to £100 cash and is valid for three hours and can be used at any RBS, NatWest or Tesco cash machine.

The code can be used by the person downloading it or texted to someone else.

In a bid to help customers without smartphones, the bank it announced that 1,000 NatWest branches in all major towns and cities will be open until 7pm tonight.