FOUR of Britain’s biggest banks are delaying intra-bank payments between accounts as they struggle to combat security breaches from a spiralling increase in “phishing” attacks.

Barclays, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest have delayed instantaneous online transfers by between several hours and a day.

The banks are under increasing attack from phishing gangs, which send e-mails to customers purporting to be from their bank, requesting account and password details. The money is then transferred to an account with the bank and typically sent abroad via a money transfer.

This week Barclays introduced a one-day delay for transfers. A spokeswoman said: “This delay enables us to carry out checks that seek to prevent fraud.” Halifax also introduced delays in the processing of payments this week, as have Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest.

MailFrontier, the internet security company, reported a rise in phishing cases from 1,082 in April last year to 13,482 in March. The Association for Payment Clearing Services, which represents banks on payment issues, said that online banking fraud cost £12 million last year.

Nilay Patel, director of sales engineering at MailFrontier, said the delays were a belated attempt to tackle a problem that had taken the banks by surprise.