Monday's IT glitch was particularly embarrassing for NatWest given is about to launch the UK's first "biometric fingerprint debit card" that it claimed will allow customers to approve payments over £30 with their fingerprints. However, the problems did not last as long as last year's catastrophic IT meltdown at TSB, which left the bank facing a reputational crisis. Rivals have since been racing to hire talent to avoid a similar disaster. Visa was also thrown into chaos last year when its payment system crashed across Europe, causing thousands of cardholders to have their cards declined at supermarkets, retailers and public transport. Halifax, Lloyds and NatWest apologised on their social media pages on Monday afternoon and said all services were back up and running. A spokesman for NatWest, which is part of RBS, said "we apologise for any inconvenience this caused", while a Lloyds spokesman said: "We're sorry that some of our customers had issues with internet banking this morning."