Nationwide, First Direct, Lloyds and Halifax all confirmed widespread app and online banking disruptions on Friday, leaving many customers unable to access their pay as salaries and bills moved in and out of accounts.
This is the second consecutive month that major banks have experienced IT failures around the end-of-month payday rush.
According to service status website DownDetector, users reported difficulty logging in or making payments on various platforms. TSB also admitted “intermittent” issues, with a spokesman blaming “industry-wide problems” and pledging to resolve them swiftly.
A spokesperson for Nationwide acknowledged “some incoming and outgoing payments are delayed,” though standing orders and direct debits continued to function normally. First Direct said mobile and online banking were “experiencing issues with payments,” with the problem subsequently rectified.
Lloyds and Halifax echoed these statements, apologising for the inconvenience and promising to restore normal service as soon as possible. Lloyds noted that “some customers are having issues with internet banking and our apps.”
The latest failures follow similar outages at Barclays, Lloyds Bank and Halifax at the end of January and beginning of February, which also coincided with the monthly payroll peak.
Industry experts suggest the pressure on banking systems around payday is leaving them vulnerable. Keith Budden, managing director at Ensurety, warned that persistent failures are “more than just an annoying niggle, it’s now a payments pothole that needs fixing.” He suggested that either banks must rapidly upgrade systems or address possible cybersecurity attacks.
Chris Skinner, a renowned fintech specialist, argued that “the world is spinning so fast with technology” that both regulators and banks are struggling to keep pace. He noted that frequent Friday outages could be down to banks scheduling software updates for quieter weekend periods, making them more susceptible to errors at peak payroll times.
With many customers locked out of their wages and growing concerns around banking infrastructure, calls are mounting for tighter oversight, improved resilience and faster tech investments across the industry.