[UK] Charities unable to pay staff and suppliers following fraud alert

In the UK, charities across the South East have expressed concern that they will be unable to pay staff and suppliers after being cut off from their online bank accounts, BBC News reports.

Their fears come after CAF Bank suspended its online services on July 24 following reports of suspected cyber fraud. The bank, owned by the Charities Aid Foundation, is based in West Malling, Kent, and serves more than 14,000 non-profit causes UK-wide.

Some charities served by the bank have reportedly struggled to manage essential operations, such as payroll. 

Maidstone-based 21 Together, which supports people with Down's syndrome, is one of these charities. Chief executive Kevan Hodges has a 13-strong team of education specialists and part-time staff. He described the situation as "appalling".

"People are concerned that wages won't get paid because of this, and that's just stressful when they have bills to pay," Mr Hodges said.

"My team have wasted days trying to get through to (CAF Bank), but all in vain."

He added that when team members finally reached someone at the bank, they were told to fill out an online form which "would be looked at tomorrow".

In a statement, Alison Taylor - CAF Bank’s chief executive - said, "I am very sorry for the disruption this has caused for our customers.

"On Monday we informed them that the online banking service will be unavailable until further notice.

"We are working with external experts to fix an issue we identified with third-party software related to our online banking portal. Importantly, the core bank is not affected."

"We appreciate how difficult this is for our customers and want this to be resolved as quickly as possible, but we cannot restore access until we are assured the issue is safely resolved,” Ms Taylor added.

"We are still able to support as extra teams are available on the phone, and we are prioritising time-sensitive payments such as payroll."

Source: BBC News

(Quotes via original reporting)

In the UK, charities across the South East have expressed concern that they will be unable to pay staff and suppliers after being cut off from their online bank accounts, BBC News reports.

Their fears come after CAF Bank suspended its online services on July 24 following reports of suspected cyber fraud. The bank, owned by the Charities Aid Foundation, is based in West Malling, Kent, and serves more than 14,000 non-profit causes UK-wide.

Some charities served by the bank have reportedly struggled to manage essential operations, such as payroll. 

Maidstone-based 21 Together, which supports people with Down's syndrome, is one of these charities. Chief executive Kevan Hodges has a 13-strong team of education specialists and part-time staff. He described the situation as "appalling".

"People are concerned that wages won't get paid because of this, and that's just stressful when they have bills to pay," Mr Hodges said.

"My team have wasted days trying to get through to (CAF Bank), but all in vain."

He added that when team members finally reached someone at the bank, they were told to fill out an online form which "would be looked at tomorrow".

In a statement, Alison Taylor - CAF Bank’s chief executive - said, "I am very sorry for the disruption this has caused for our customers.

"On Monday we informed them that the online banking service will be unavailable until further notice.

"We are working with external experts to fix an issue we identified with third-party software related to our online banking portal. Importantly, the core bank is not affected."

"We appreciate how difficult this is for our customers and want this to be resolved as quickly as possible, but we cannot restore access until we are assured the issue is safely resolved,” Ms Taylor added.

"We are still able to support as extra teams are available on the phone, and we are prioritising time-sensitive payments such as payroll."

Source: BBC News

(Quotes via original reporting)