A review into bank payments after the Ulster Bank systems failure last summer has made a number of recommendations to improve the process. A technical problem saw hundreds of thousands of customers here and in Britain unable to access their accounts for a number of weeks.

The Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) carried out an external review to ensure its risk management process was up to scratch.

The review found it was relatively robust but recommended that risk assessments are carried out more frequently and that they would focus on the payments systems as a whole.

This review found that the risk management process of IPSO is relatively robust based on International best practices. But it says a number of improvements were recommended. These include:

• The IPSO Risk Framework will be fully aligned with industry best practice
• The risk assessment will be carried out annually (rather than every two years)
• There will be external validation of the clearing banks’ submissions to annual risk assessments
• Risk assessments will focus on the payments systems as a whole rather than looking at the individual elements that comprise the payments systems
• Representatives from member banks’ operations, I.T., and risk functions will present their assessments to a Payments Risk Governance Board comprising IPSO, the Payments and Securities Settlements Division and the Banking Supervision Division of the Central Bank of Ireland

IPSO says its members have agreed to implement all the recommendations and have arranged a timetable with the Central Bank for their implementation.

The body says it is currently recruiting an external firm to assist in driving the implementation plan.

Chief Executive of IPSO Pat McLaughlin says technical problems can occur but it is the reaction that is crucial.