Santander UK is attempting to recover $175 million (130 million pounds) that it unintentionally paid to tens of thousands of customers on Christmas Day.
The erroneous payments were sent to nearly 75,000 persons, many of whom were customers of competing banks. Santander is seeking assistance from other banks to reclaim the funds, according to the bank.
The faulty deposits seemed to be routine payments to recipients because they were duplicates of regular and one-time payments made by 2,000 of the bank’s commercial and corporate customers to people such as suppliers and workers. In addition, Santander stated that its customers did not provide the funds for the second payments.
“We’re sorry that due to a technical issue, some payments from our corporate clients were incorrectly duplicated on the recipients’ accounts,” the bank said.
“None of our clients were at any point left out of pocket as a result, and we will be working hard with many banks across the U.K. to recover the duplicated transactions over the coming days.”
According to reports, people with accounts at dozens of financial institutions, including Barclays, HSBC, and Virgin Money, were among those who got the mistaken payouts.
Santander UK has contacted the banks where the payments were made to assist in recouping the funds. The bank also stated that it was utilizing its own methods to retrieve the money. However, it was unclear how banks would handle customers who had already spent their money.
Santander UK is a British subsidiary of Spain’s Banco Santander, with a customer base of over 14.4 million. In May, the bank apologized after a “technical issue” prohibited certain customers from accessing banking services, including making payments, for many hours.
Banks seldom deposit millions of dollars by accident, but such mishaps can be the most costly for people who receive the payments by mistake.