HSBC, Nationwide and Virgin Money hit by payment issues

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• Author, Mitchell Labiak
• Role, Business Reporter
• June 28, 2024, 11:17 BST

  Updated 56 minutes ago

Thousands of UK bank customers have been affected by payment problems affecting some of the biggest high street lenders.

Banks including HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays and Virgin Money have been hit by issues with a system that handles payments between individuals and businesses.

The group overseeing the payments system said the issue causing the problems had now been resolved and the delay in payments had been resolved.

Many customers complained on social media, and some said their salaries were not deposited into their accounts.

Some told the BBC they were still experiencing payment issues despite claims the glitch had been resolved.

The timing of the outages was particularly problematic given that the last Friday of the month is when many people get paid.

Many people also need to pay bills at this time.

“My bills are jumping and I can’t afford the train ticket I need in the next hour,” said one customer.

Another said customers deserved compensation for “people’s payday inconvenience.”

“We all have bills to pay,” they added.

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

The 29-year-old engineer said bills started being declined on his account.

“I’m due to move house next week and my savings have been emptied for deposits and rent,” he said.

The BBC understands that banks have been hit by problems with Faster Payments, a system that runs “under the hood” of the UK’s financial system.

The goal is to ensure that real-time payments between millions of people 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 later added that “payments are back to normal and the delay has been resolved.”

However, some bank customers have disputed this, telling the BBC that they have not yet received their salary payments.

HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays and Virgin Media have previously apologised for payment delays.

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

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