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<\/div>\nTens of thousands of people awoke on Christmas morning to a surprise from an unexpected benefactor \u2013 Santander. <\/p>\n
The bank mistakenly deposited \u00a3130m into 75,000 accounts on 25 December.<\/p>\n
Santander\u2019s staff are now rushing to claw back the money, although the job is being made more difficult because much of it was deposited in accounts at rival banks, according to The Times.<\/p>\n
The error occurred when payments from 2,000 business accounts were made twice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sorry that due to a technical issue, some payments from our corporate clients were incorrectly duplicated on the recipients\u2019 accounts,\u201d the bank said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone 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 UK to recover the duplicated transactions over the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said the mistake may have meant that some people were, in effect, paid twice from their employer\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
Ruined Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n One payroll manager, who asked not to be named, told the BBC the blunder had cast a shadow over Christmas and Boxing Day. <\/p>\n \u201cIt ruined my holiday period because I thought I\u2019d paid out hundreds of thousands in error \u2013 I thought I had done something wrong,\u201d they told the BBC.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was just me and that I was going to get in trouble at work.\u201d<\/p>\n They said that Santander had not given any information about how firms should explain the second payment to staff or about how it should be repaid.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a complete shambles,\u201d the payroll manager said. \u201cHow they are going to recover it, I just don\u2019t know.\u201d <\/p>\n The bank stressed that it had already begun speaking to the rival banks \u2013 which The Times said included Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Co-operative Bank and Virgin Money.<\/p>\n Santander said those banks would \u201clook to recover the money from their customers\u2019 accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n However, it was not clear how the banks would respond if their customers had already spent the money, meaning returning it would push them into overdraft.<\/p>\n Santander indicated that it may contact people directly to get the money back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n