Major UK high street banks say payment issues fixed

Thousands of UK bank customers were hit by payment problems affecting some of the biggest High Street lenders on Friday.

Banks including HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays and Virgin Money were all affected by issues with a system that operates payments between individuals and firms.

The group overseeing the payments system said the issue causing the problems has now been fixed, and the payment backlog has been cleared.

However, several people have told the BBC they are still facing issues, with some saying they now have little cash left.

The timing of the glitches was particularly problematic given the last Friday of the month is when many salaried staff are usually paid.

Many people also have to pay bills around this time.

"My bills are bouncing and I can’t pay for a train ticket I need in the next hour," said one customer on X.

Another said customers deserved compensation for the "inconvenience on people’s pay day".

"We all have bills to pay," they added.

Ryan, from Telford, who did not want his surname to be used, said he had not received his wages and as a result has £12 to his name.

The 29-year-old engineer said bills had started to be declined on his account.

"I’m supposed to be moving home next week and my savings have been emptied for deposits and rent," he said.

The BBC understands that the banks were affected by issues to Faster Payments, a system that operates "under the bonnet" of the UK financial system.

It aims to make sure real-time payments between millions of individuals and businesses are made seemingly instantly.

Pay UK, which oversees the system, said: "We are aware that a small number of Faster Payments were delayed or not processed earlier today.

"Working with our infrastructure provider, this technical issue has been fixed."

It then added later that "payments have returned to normal and the backlog is resolved".

However, some banking customers have disputed this, telling the BBC they have still yet to receive their salary payments.

HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays and Virgin Media had all apologised earlier for the delays to payments.

This is not the first time High Street lenders' services have been hit by problems.

Nationwide customers faced similar issues in March, while HSBC customers suffered an outage lasting over 24 hours in November.