Up to 400,000 people in the UK could be in for a rude shock today after a problem with the country's banking system meant that their salaries have not been paid on time.
A database fault in the BACS system, the electronic link between all the UK's high street banks, means that not all payments will arrive in customers' accounts before this weekend.
However banks have said that they would guarantee that customers would not miss any vital payments or suffer any charges for going into the red as a result of the problems.
"This was just a one-off problem," said a spokesperson for the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) – the association of banks which handles credit transfers.
"We are pretty sure it is resolved. We are confident that payments that should have been made today will at the latest be in customers' accounts by Monday morning."
