Expect pay delays over Easter, Anzac Day, banks say.  


Australians expecting pay over the long weekend may face a meagre holiday, after banks said the convergence of Easter and Anzac Day this year would prevent payments and funds from being cleared.    

Pay or funds deposited yesterday would not be settled or posted to an account at another bank until as late as next Thursday, April 28, the major banks have warned customers.

"This year the combination of the national public holidays for Easter and Anzac days results in a five-day period where clearing and settlement process will be delayed," Australian Banker's Association spokeswoman Heather Wellard said.


"The practice is no different from any other weekend, previous Easter long weekends or other Australian-wide public holidays such as the Christmas period."

Ms Wellard said the online, mobile, ATM and telephone banking services offered by the banks would be available as normal. The payment holiday is expected to affect all of Australia's banks.

However, Ingrid Just, spokeswoman for Consumer group Choice, said the long public holiday exposed the frail state of Australia's banking payment system.

"It's shining a spotlight on this public holiday issue to a degree we haven't seen before," she said.

She suggested that the banks look to improving these kinds of delays though the massive IT upgrade they are undergoing.

"We can put a man on the moon - in fact it's been some decades since we've done that - and yet we're unable to automatically process some of these payments."  

The pay delay comes after a series of problems related to payments at Australia's banks in recent months.

Late last week, the National Australia Bank experienced a second major delay in its payments systems that forced the bank to open up branches over the weekend to accommodate customers and offer to reimburse them for losses.

Interest paid

Rival ANZ bank said customers would still earn interest on the money in their account until it was actually processed.

"This is an industry wide issue but we recognise that it may lead to some inconvenience for our customers," a spokesman for ANZ Bank said. "This is why we proactively encouraged our customers to process any payments as early as possible."

"Any payments between customers' ANZ accounts will happen as usual and any bills will be credited from when the payment was made, regardless of when it's received by the merchant," he said.

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Comments



   This is truly pathetic from the banks. As I have said for years, premium price for a poor service, if sometimes you get the service at all.
   Ross Treseder | Geelong - April 21, 2011, 1:28PM

Quote:



When pays first started to be direct credited to your account our pays were always 24 hours late, computer glitches the bank said, the truth came out that were putting the money on the overnight short money market.

I wonder if the same delay applies to deposits?

I don't trust banks.

Wont worry you imcrook, no pay for you anyway.