LONDON (Reuters) – Customers of HSBC, Nationwide and Virgin Money (LON:) were unable to use online banking services on Friday, the latest outage to plague an industry that has become increasingly reliant on digital access amid the closure of physical branches.
Thousands of HSBC customers in the UK were unable to access online banking services on Friday after the bank acknowledged an outage on its website and banking app for some users.
The bank said at 11:15 a.m. GMT that it had restored access to its online and mobile banking after more than 7,000 customers reported issues, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks such outages.
A spokesman for the bank said separate issues were affecting payments across several banks, causing delays and failed notices for transactions between customers.
Virgin Money said some customers were unable to access online or mobile banking, while Nationwide said some customers’ salary and pension payments had been delayed.
According to X’s post, customers of all three companies reported being unable to access their money or pay their bills.
Confusion over online banking services has been a persistent issue for British banks in recent years but has become more acute as lenders increasingly encourage customers to bank online in a bid to cut fixed costs.
According to consumer magazine Which?, around 6,000 branches have closed in the UK since 2015.
