NatWest extends opening hours again Susan Allen, director of customer services at RBS Group, insisted that progress was being made and expressed cautious optimism that RBS and NatWest customer account balances would be largely "back to normal" at the start of the working week. "The knock-on effects of this technical failure mean there will be bumps in the road," she said. But clients continued to voice their frustration on the NatWest website this morning. Chris Latimer, from Liverpool, wrote: "wow first time since the glitch, i cant access online banking. this is not good." Another posting, by Jean from Brighton, asked: "why can I not log into online banking to check my balance?" Others said they had "lost faith" in the bank and complained wages failed to arrive in their accounts. Social media websites have also been awash with criticism from people who found themselves without access to cash over the weekend or unable to pay bills. Stephen Hester, chief executive of NatWest owner RBS, has issued a public apology for the chaos and conceded the bank had let down its customers. His attempt to reassure clients followed mounting fears that thousands of people could be hit with penalty charges if their regular payments - including mortgages - were affected. The computer software problem started on Tuesday night and reportedly arose following an attempt to install a software update on RBS's payment processing system, which was then corrupted. The group has said this issue has now been fixed. It has promised that any overdraft fees or charges on current accounts incurred by customers would be automatically waived and has said it would work directly with credit agencies to ensure no one's credit score was affected. It will also reimburse customers who had to pay to ring an 0845 helpline number for any cost incurred when doing so.