There were 158 incidents where bank account holders were unable to use mobile or online banking functions between January 2023 and February 2025, according to the Treasury Committee.
This does not include the recent Barclays IT failure in February, which was attributed to technical issues causing a “severe degradation” of its mainframe system.
Customers of the bank will receive £12.5m for the issues that stopped them from sending money or checking the up-to-date balances of their accounts. Previously, the highest payout from a bank was £350,000, paid to customers of the Bank of Ireland and leading the business to invest £100m in its banking services over the next three years.
Customers who make a complaint can expect the issue to be addressed and payment made within the usual time frames in which the bank aims to resolve banking problems. However, more complex cases could take longer, the banks told the committee.
The incident was compounded by the fact that it fell on payday for many employees, as well as being the deadline for self-employed workers to pay their tax bill on 31 January.
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Some affected account holders experienced delays in buying their homes, as they couldn’t send funds to solicitors.
Halifax, Bank of Scotland, and Lloyds customers also experienced banking problems, with transactions not appearing on their statements despite funds leaving the account.
After the mass outages, MPs wrote to those banks and HSBC, Nationwide, Santander, NatWest, Danske Bank, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank to “demand” reasons for the surge in IT problems.
The banks responded by explaining the timings and reasons for each outage. In their responses, the banks blamed problems with third-party suppliers and the knock-on effects of changing systems as to why customers suffered. Another common reason account holders were left unable to carry out mobile and online banking transactions was due to malfunctions of their internal software.
‘Losing access can be a terrifying experience’
Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, said: “For families and individuals living pay cheque to pay cheque, losing access to banking services on payday can be a terrifying experience.
“Even when rectified relatively quickly, it can cause real panic, which is why we wanted to get a proper understanding of why unplanned banking outages happen and how banks and building societies respond. And we know some can go on for several days.
“The fact there has been enough outages to fill a whole month within the last two years shows customers’ frustrations are completely valid. The reality is that this data shows even the most successful banks and building societies hit technical glitches. What’s critical is they react swiftly and ensure customers are kept informed throughout.”
Hillier added: “I am grateful to the banks for their responses and reassured that they are doing all they can to minimise the impact on their customers. I am particularly thankful to those who are compensating their customers well for the stress they endure and would encourage all to reflect on whether they are doing enough in that regard.”
David Raw, managing director of operational resilience at UK Finance, said: “The banking industry invests billions in systems and technology to ensure customers have easy and convenient access to their money across a range of channels. This ongoing investment means incidents [that] cause significant disruption happen very rarely.
“Unfortunately, there are occasions when some services are unavailable and we recognise this can cause inconvenience for customers. If an issue arises, the bank will work extremely hard to rectify it as quickly as possible and minimise the customer impact. Banks also keep customers updated and supported, including paying compensation where appropriate.”
