The building society says the issues with Faster Payments are now fixed and it’s working to clear the payment queue.

The tech issues begun yesterday lunchtime and continued until late in the evening, with the most issues reported at about 6pm according to outage monitor DownDetector. The problems affected people expecting to receive wages and benefit payments into their accounts, as well as those making ad-hoc payments – direct debits and standing orders were working normally.

Nationwide online banking included a statement saying: “We can’t accept payments into your account from outside Nationwide at the moment. The person sending you money will be told to try again later. Additionally payments sent from your account are delayed at the moment. If you’ve sent money you don’t need to do anything, it’s in a queue and will be processed ASAP.”

Nationwide debit and credit cards could still be used, money could be transferred between Nationwide accounts, and customers could withdraw cash from the ATM.

Many customers who had been unable to receive wages and go Christmas shopping expressed their frustration on social media.

@AskNationwide Tweeted at about 10pm last night: “Our Faster Payments issue has now been fixed and we’re working to clear the queue. Thank you for your patience today and we’re sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you.”

A Nationwide spokesperson said: “We apologise for the delays that members have experienced yesterday in sending and receiving faster payments. This issue has now been resolved and all payments that had been queued have now been processed. All new outbound and inbound payments are also being processed as normal. Customer service remains our top priority and we thank members for their patience. We will also refund all Nationwide charges and fees incurred as a result of this issue. For any charges and fees incurred elsewhere, people should contact the society to discuss these, and any related to this issue will be refunded.”