Thousands of UK bank clients struggled to access their accounts on Friday, pushing their digital banking more broadly as lenders continue to close branches.
IT failure means that TSB, the nationwide, the No. 1 Direct and Lloyds Bank Group customers (including its Lloyds, Halifax and Scottish brands) are working to log in to an online bank account or to pay delays.
For clients preparing for paydays, these problems worsen. Most services have resumed on Friday afternoon.
This is the second straight month for users to struggle with delays on critical days. At the end of January, a glitch left some Barclays customers locking in the HMRC deadline for nearly 24 hours to resolve self-assessment tax returns.
Members of the influential Finance Committee requested a reply from the bank and wrote to lenders CEOs including Lloyds, Natworth, Santander, National, Barclays and HSBC in early February. Executives were ordered to provide details about the outage, how it affects customers, how the board responds, and how they plan to prevent future problems. The committee will release a lender’s response in the coming days.
However, Friday’s interruption has attracted further attention from members of Congress. The committee is close to it, the Finance Committee is evaluating its options and will consider the next step next week.
As lenders’ lenders are facing competition from online lenders like Monzo, Reclotte and JP JP Morgan Chase.
Lenders who once ruled on the streets continued to close branches, saying it was reasonable by gradually using in-person banking. It has resulted in thousands of closures, with the number of branches in the UK falling to 6,870 from around 10,565 in 2014, according to the UK Banking Association and the National Office of Statistics.
But the repeated failure stresses the importance of providing in-person and manual banking services to ensure neither lender nor customer is kidnapped by technical failures, crashes or cyber attacks.
Regulators are trying to curb the prospects of bank deserts. As of last year, financial conduct authorities asked banks not to close their websites until they can guarantee that they will not be affected by access to cash. But this has led banks to push customers to alternatives, including bank hubs or post offices that provide cash services.
UK Finance defended its members in a comment on the latest power outage, which worked to address any IT issues affecting customers.
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“All banks invest heavily in their systems and technologies to ensure that customers can easily access banking services,” said the Banking Hall Group. “Where problems arise, they work very hard to correct them quickly and support their customers. Banks have been posting information on their websites and social media accounts to ensure they keep customers updated.”
But Reena Sewraz, retail editor of Consumer Group, said users should track how downtime affects them in case they ask for compensation. “These latest IT issues can cause real headaches for thousands of customers – worse, because it’s a payday for many customers.
“It is crucial that all affected banks can enable customers to update and move quickly to make up for any losses that may result from today’s power outage. If a customer needs to file a claim, evidence of payment should be retained. If a customer missed an important payment, the company should be contacted to ensure they waive any fees.”
