UK Bank Outages Leave Customers Struggling on Payday
Several major UK banks, including Lloyds, Halifax, Nationwide, and First Direct, have reported technical issues this morning that are affecting customers' ability to make payments. The outages, which occurred on payday for many people in the UK, has caused delays in transactions and left some unable to access their funds.
Nationwide confirmed on its website that "some incoming and outgoing payments are delayed at the moment," while First Direct apologized for the inconvenience, saying it was investigating "as a matter of urgency." Lloyds Banking Group, which owns Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland, acknowledged the problem and assured customers it was working to restore services.
Downdetector, a site that tracks service outages, recorded thousands of reports of banking app issues. Frustrated customers took to social media to express their concerns, with some saying they were unable to pay staff or complete essential transactions. One user, referencing a similar Barclays outage in January, wrote on X, "I changed to you when Barclays had a major breakdown on payday... Now this month you've gone down on payday."
This marks the second consecutive month that UK banks have experienced major IT issues around payday, raising concerns about the reliability of online banking systems. The Treasury Committee has since reached out to bank executives from nine different banks for more information on the scale and impact of these failures on their customers.
With many relying on digital banking for day-to-day transactions, customers are calling for banks to improve their systems to prevent future disruptions, especially on critical days like payday.
