The Bank of England is coming under intense political pressure to provide a more detailed explanation of the ten-hour breakdown in the operation of the UK's high value payments system, Chaps, on Monday.
The Chaps system was eventually brought back online shortly after 4pm and the deadline for processing extended through to 8pm to clear the backlog of payments.
Throughout the day, as buyers and sellers of houses across Britain worried about whether their payments would be transferred, the Bank had remained relatively tight-lipped about the exact cause of the problems.
Although it has yet to give a clear explanation, it is understood that the glitch followed a weekend upgrade to change the name of a single bank name, from Northern Bank to Danske Bank, on the Chaps platform.
The breakdown in service is a huge embarrassment for the Bank of England, which has previously lambasted the nation's banks for the failings in their legacy IT infrastructure.
Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the Treasury Committee, has written to BofE governor Mark Carney, demanding a full explanation.
“A crucial part of the UK’s financial infrastructure failed for several hours today. I will be writing to the Bank of England to find out why," he says. “The whole economy depends on a reliable payment system. We need to have confidence that the cause has been found and addressed.”
For his part, Carney has launched an independent review of the causes of the unprecedented disruption. "The review will cover the causes of the incident, the effectiveness of the Bank’s response and the lessons learned for future contingency plans," says the Bank. "Its findings will be presented to Court which will then publish the full report and the response."