Barclays PLC’s (LON:BARC) online stockbroking arm has run into more technical problems with dividends being paid into customer accounts days or even weeks late.
The popular site has already been hit a by a wave of defections to other stockbrokers after wholesale changes to the platform in August as part of a rebranding exercise sparked error messages, problems accessing the site and pricing mistakes.
Reports today said that customers are still waiting for dividends from some of the UK’s largest companies including BP, Lloyds Banking Group and Imperial Brands that were paid in September.
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These may not come through for a further eight days because of problems with the site’s overhaul, the FT reported.
Other dividends including HSBC, British American Tobacco and BHP Billiton were also paid late while the amount paid to Royal Dutch Shell shareholders was wrong.
Shares that went ex-dividend before the platform’s re-launch over the August Bank Holiday but had payment dates in September caused the problems, said Barclays.
All outstanding dividends would be paid by 12 October said the bank, which added that less than 4% of shares on its platform were affected.
Customers moving away
“This was a short-term issue with the dividend payments on a small number of stocks that has now been resolved and future dividend payments will not be impacted,” Barclays said.
“The last of the delayed payments will be made by October 12 after which our customers should not see any further delays.”
Before the relaunch, as ‘Barclays Smart Investor', the site had 250,000 users, but many of these are believed to have switched to other stockbrokers.
Spread better IG last month said that more than half of its transfer requests were coming from Barclays Smart Investor customers.