UK (Commonwealth) _ Many Nationwide, Virgin Money, HSBC, and Barclays clients are unable to send and receive money due to payment issues.
This is not the first time a prominent a UK bank has had technological problems; 10 million users of Natwest’s app experienced an outage last month. Since Friday is the last working day of the month and when many employees get paid by their employers, the problems have gotten worse. A lot of them also have direct debits taken out of their accounts to cover costs.
We’re terribly sorry that some customers are experiencing trouble accessing their online and mobile banking, HSBC UK stated on its website. To restore these services to normal, our IT professionals are putting in a lot of effort.
After experiencing problems in the wee hours of Friday, Virgin Money claimed that users may now access its app again, although there is still a backlog of payments to be processed. Nationwide informed the BBC that it was aware of “delayed a small number of payments” resulting from “third-party payments issues impacting some providers, including Nationwide”.
“These should be processed and paid later today,” Nationwide stated. On X, the previous Twitter, Virgin Money stated that it is “working hard to process the backlog of payments delayed as quickly as other banks.” Consumers have vented about the issues on social media. A consumer posted on X, saying, “My card was declined this morning for an entire load of shopping due to the money I transferred earlier hadn’t arrived into my account. It was a very embarrassing 20 minutes.” Additionally, no cash machines.
It is acknowledged that problems with the Faster transfers service, which enables same-day electronic transfers in UK pound between banks, impacted Nationwide, HSBC, Barclays, and Virgin Money.
Although it is acknowledged that the problem has been resolved, there is still a backlog of payments that is creating problems. The company in charge of the system, Pay UK, has acknowledged that a tiny percentage of Faster Payments were either not handled at all or were processed slowly earlier today. Our infrastructure provider and I have resolved this technical issue.
These are hardly the first issues the banks have faced. Clients of Nationwide experienced a number of problems in March, including the inability to transfer money. Meanwhile, thousands of HSBC clients in the UK were unable to use online and mobile banking for almost a day in November, prompting HSBC to issue an apology.
On Friday, thousands of bank clients in the UK experienced payment issues that were impacting some of the largest High Street institutions. Problems with a system that manages payments between people and businesses impacted a number of banks, including HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays, and Virgin Money.
The team in charge of the payments system reported that the backlog of payments has been cleared and the problem that was creating the issues has now been resolved. Nevertheless, a number of customers have informed the BBC that they are still having problems, with some stating that they are now short on funds.
Given that many salaried employees often receive their paychecks on the final Friday of the month, the timing of the errors was especially troubling. Around this time, many people also have bills to pay.
One user on X remarked, “My bills are bouncing and I can’t pay for a train ticket I need in the next hour.” Customers should be compensated for the “inconvenience on people’s pay day,” according to another. They said, “Everyone has bills to pay.”
Ryan, a Telford resident who wished to remain anonymous, claimed he was not paid and so only had £12 in his possession. The engineer, 29, said that his account was starting to have bills rejected. He added, “I’ve used up all of my savings for rent and deposits because I’m moving in a week.”
Faster Payments is a technology that runs “under the bonnet” of the UK financial system, and the media has been informed that problems with it have harmed the banks. Its goal is to ensure that millions of people and companies can make real-time payments that appear to happen instantaneously.
Some bank clients, however, have refuted this, telling the BBC that they haven’t received their wage cheques yet. Virgin Media, Nationwide, HSBC, and Barclays have all previously expressed regret for the payment delays. The services provided by High Street lenders have had issues previously.
Clients throughout the country experienced similar problems in March, and in November, HSBC clients experienced an outage that lasted more than 24 hours.
