Santander issues warning after 75,000 customers were accidentally paid twice

Santander has confirmed it is still recovering cash paid out by accident more than three years ago after thousands of people were mistakenly paid twice The high street bank mistakenly deposited £130million into 75,000 accounts on Christmas Day in 2021. The major banking blunder saw the double payments paid from 2,000 business accounts - meaning, some people were effectively paid twice by their employer. Payments included wages and money from suppliers.

None of the business account customers were left out of pocket at the time, as the second payment was covered by Santander . The bank said it was working to recover the money - but the issue was, most of the payments were sent to rival bank accounts, including Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Co Op Bank and Virgin Money. However, in a new update issued this week, a spokesperson for Santander told The Sun it is still recovering the money.



They said: “We worked collaboratively with recipient banks immediately after the issue occurred in order to recover a majority of the funds, but some recovery activities remain in progress.” If you're paid twice by accident, you're not legally allowed to keep the cash - and the organisation that sent the money is allowed to ask for it back. The issue was first reported by The Times , who said that rival banks were reluctant to claw the money back as it could push customers into their overdrafts.

There were also concerns that people would have already spent the cash. It comes after Santander saw its UK saw its pre-tax profits shrink to £143million for the three months to September, down from the £413million in the previous quarter. The bank has set aside £295million for potential payouts and legal expenses from the on-going car finance scandal.

The ruling from the Court of Appeal saw the court side with consumers in a row over commission earned by companies selling car finance loans. The case centred around an argument that people did not know their dealer was receiving more commission as a result of fixing a higher interest rate on their credit agreement. Santander said it disagrees with the conclusions reached by the Court of Appeal in its October ruling.

The bank said there are “significant uncertainties as to the nature, extent and timing of any remediation action if required and the ultimate financial impact could be materially higher or lower than the amount provided”..