Many UK customers were locked out of their online bank accounts on Friday after several leading banks suffered problems with their digital platforms. HSBC (HSBC), Virgin Money (VMUK), Nationwide and Barclays (BARC) are among the companies that have been forced to apologise to their customers for the inconvenience caused.
Major Banks Suffer Online Banking Outages
The outage occurred on a date commonly used as a payday for many British workers. Many turned to social media sites like X to complain that they couldn’t access their bank accounts or make transactions on any device.
For some customers, this was the second time in two months they’ve been left locked out of their accounts on this date. According to Nationwide, there were also some delays with salary and pension payments being processed and paid into accounts.
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The affected banks took to social media to apologise and reassure their customers they were doing everything possible to get their services back to normal. A Virgin Money statement said it was:
Aware of intermittent issues with accessing online banking and our app, which we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible. Thanks for your patience while we restore the service.
Nationwide laid the blame at the door of a third-party payments issue, while an HSBC spokesperson mentioned that there was an issue affecting payments at multiple banks. With many customers now relying almost entirely on digital banking, the recurring nature of this problem has led to frustration, and the banks will be working hard to avoid similar problems happening again next month.
