Santander Bank Scrambles To Recover Accidental $175 Million Christmas Day Deposit To Customers

Boston-based Santander Bank accidentally deposited around $175 million to thousands of businesses and individuals in the U.K. on Christmas Day.

The mistake, which was reportedly caused by a scheduling issue, occurred when payments from 2,000 businesses were made twice into the accounts of an estimated 75,000 people.

While the first payment was funded by the businesses, the second payment was made by Santander. Those affected were account holders at HSBC, Barclays, Virgin Money, NatWest and Co-operative Bank.

Santander is reportedly scrambling to figure out how it will recover the funds, which may have already been spent by some customers.

The bank is reportedly hesitant to pull the money directly from the affected accounts out of fear it will leave customers with an overdraft on their accounts.

“We’re sorry that due to a technical issue some payments from our corporate clients were incorrectly duplicated on the recipients’ accounts,” a Santander spokesperson said in a statement. “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.”

Although Santander is working with rival banks to recover its money, it may also reach out to customers directly to retrieve the payments.

This isn’t the first time Santander has made the news over its banking operations. In May, the bank experienced widespread technical problems, which left customers unable to access their money.

During the service disruption, the online banking and app were unavailable and people experienced issues using their cards at ATMs and in branches. Customers were also unable to make purchases or payments.

After a nearly all-day outage, the company apologized and informed customers services were running normally again.