There have been widespread issues with banking services affecting customers of major UK banks, including Nationwide, HSBC, Barclays, and Virgin Money. These problems have left some customers unable to send or receive money, which could have a significant impact on those expecting their salary on what is commonly known as pay day.
HSBC UK has confirmed that there is a “separate payments issue affecting multiple banks”, while Nationwide has attributed the issue to a “third-party payments issue”. Customers of Barclays have also been alerted to the problem, and Virgin Money has announced that access to its app has been fully restored after experiencing issues in the morning. However, there is still a backlog of payments to be processed by the bank.
The Financial Conduct Authority has stated that it is closely monitoring the situation, and the Bank of England is also engaging with the affected banks. In a statement on its website, HSBC UK apologized for the inconvenience caused to customers and confirmed that its online banking and mobile app are now functioning normally.
According to reports on the website DownDetector, over 7,000 issues were reported at around 8:45 am on Friday morning. The site also shows a surge in outage reports for high street bank Virgin Money, building society Nationwide, and Barclays. Several Nationwide customers have taken to social media to complain that they have not received their wages. In response, the bank has acknowledged that there may be a delay in receiving salary or pension payments, but they are currently being processed and will be deposited into accounts on the same day.
On social media platform X, Virgin Money has stated that it is “working hard to process the backlog of payments” and has asked customers not to attempt to make payments again if they have received an error message. Barclays has also acknowledged the issue and has assured customers that their team is working to resolve the problem with the “faster payment system”, which allows for digital, phone, or in-branch transfers between banks.
The operator of the faster payment system, Pay.UK, has announced that the technical issue has been resolved, and payments are returning to normal. However, a Barclays customer has expressed frustration that they have “thousands of pounds worth of payments due in” but are unable to receive them.
This is not the first time UK banks have experienced technical difficulties. Last month, NatWest encountered a four-hour outage that affected its mobile and online banking services.