Halifax online service still not ready

High street bank the Halifax is still testing the technology behind its troubled online subsidiary Intelligent Finance (IF), to ensure it can cope with enough customers simultaneously.

The proposed launch of the online service on 14 July this year was cancelled at the last minute when it was found that the system failed to cope when tested by 500 call centre staff. IF then said it would be in a position to launch by the end of August, but a firm date has yet to be set.

"The problem that caused the delayed launch has been resolved, but we are still testing it in every possible way. It's being bombarded," said an IF spokeswoman.

The bank also said that only the phone banking side of the operation would go live to begin with, and that services for online customers would follow "up to a fortnight" later.

The system is currently able to cope with 3500 customers at any one time, and testing is going well, claims IF. But by its own estimates, the phone and online system will need to cope with a peak of 15,000 hits a day, and predicts 200,000 customers daily by the end of this year.

After discovering the problem so late last time, IF is reluctant to go live until it is absolutely sure the system can cope. "We had four days before launch date last time before a problem, so obviously we are erring on the side of caution this time. We won't commit to a date at the moment," said the IF spokeswoman.

However, IF's phone banking operation is likely to be the dominant part of the operation, accounting for two-thirds of its business.

According to the Abbey National - which also suffered teething problems with the launch of its online bank cahoot - the IF testing figures now seem adequate. But the continued delay will cause embarrassment to IF, said Mac Millington, the Abbey National's managing director of business-to-consumer banking.

First published in Computing