Major UK Banks Lloyds and Halifax Experience Service Disruptions

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Several U.K. banks suffered a service outage earlier today. The downtime left thousands of customers stranded and unable to access their accounts online.

The affected banks include Lloyds Bank, Halifax Bank, Bank of Scotland, and TSB Bank.

Although there is no clear explanation for the widespread outage, customers from all four banks have been venting their frustration on social media.

Downtime on Payday Leading to Mass Frustration

There have been several reports of U.K. consumers having problems logging into their bank accounts today due to service outages.

More than 10,000 consumers have reported outages in Halifax alone, according to the Downtector website, which analyzes customer access complaints.

These banks’ websites, including those of Lloyds, Halifax, TSB, and the Bank of Scotland, acknowledge that some users are experiencing difficulties using Internet and mobile banking services.

Some of the financial institutions state on their websites that they are striving to restore their services at the earliest possible time.

Hi, Sarah, I’m James M. Sorry to read you’re unable to get into the app. Have you tried changing your mobile connection from Wi-Fi to Mobile Data to see if that helps? Is the app updated to the latest version? Have you tried logging in to Internet Banking to access your accounts?

— Lloyds Bank (@LloydsBank) April 28, 2023

A spokesperson from Lloyds Bank previously asked customers to double-check and ensure they had a functional internet connection. However, shortly after giving this advice, a different bank employee acknowledged that the problem was more widespread.

We know some of our customers are having problems logging onto Internet and Mobile Banking at the moment. We’re sorry for this, and we’re working to have it back to normal soon. ^Lynne

— Lloyds Bank (@LloydsBank) April 28, 2023

Although the banks apologized for the blackout, none deemed it necessary to provide details about the specific cause of the outage.

Nevertheless, some customers have taken to social media to complain that the outage coincided with what is essentially “payday” in the U.K. this month.

A Recurring Theme

This is not the first time such an incident has occurred, as these banks have previously experienced service outages.

In August 2022, Halifax and Lloyds banks went down, preventing customers from accessing their online banking for two days. Hundreds of bank customers had problems with online banking or could not access their credit card information that day.

When Lloyds, Halifax, and TSB went down the following month, customers could not access their credit card information or online banking services.

While this service outage has frustrated several customers, some hope they may be compensated for their inconvenience.

Last year, TSB was fined £48.65 million by U.K. regulators for poor risk management and control following an I.T. breakdown that prevented 2 million customers from accessing their accounts.

Bungled I.T. transformation is being pinpointed as the main cause of outages and delays at U.K. financial institutions, and market participants fear that an overreliance on old systems and outsourcing could exacerbate the issue.

The FCA observed that a lack of access to the operations of third-party I.T. suppliers is another concern.

Financial institutions frequently contract out technical work to other businesses, and 30% of the development work done by the corporations in the FCA sample was performed by third parties.

The regulator also discovered that financial institutions were more likely to implement tech upgrades without hiccups if a larger share of their I.T. budget went toward change management.

The fewest incidents linked to change occurred in organizations that allocated between 50% and 75% of their I.T. budget to change management.

Louise Beaumont, regulatory adviser and chair of the Open Finance and Payments Working Group at trade association techUK, predicts that a sharp divide between lenders who have modernized their technology and those who heavily rely on legacy systems will emerge in the banking industry.

The pandemic has "forced the pace of change" in banking technology: "A bank might do several releases a week, whereas in the 'before times' they had an attack of the vapours at the thought of doing one a quarter."https://t.co/SBsXUCD8go #fintech #banking #IT #outsourcing #FCA

— Dr Louise Beaumont (@LouiseHBeaumont) February 22, 2021

However, he noted that there is hope that banks will eventually improve their ability to manage I.T. changes.

Furthermore, Market Intelligence has compiled several news stories, seminars, podcasts, and studies to provide financial institutions with all the crucial information they need to guide their banks through these problems.