More than one month’s worth of IT failures at major banks and building societies in the last two years

Nine of the top banks and building societies operating in the UK accumulated at least 803 hours, the equivalent of more than 33 days, of unplanned tech and systems outages in the last two years, new data published by the Treasury Committee shows. 

At least 158 banking IT failure incidents affected millions of customers' ability to access and use services between January 2023 and February 2025. 

The data referenced above does not include the most recent outages affecting Barclays customers between 31 January – 2 February and various banks on 28 February, disruption which left many people distressed on payday and prompting concerns from MPs. The Committee will be requesting further information from the organisations involved in these instances.

Despite not including the information in their aggregated figures, Barclays were able to provide some data on the recent outage which lasted for several days. The bank confirmed 56% of online payments during the incident failed due to ‘severe degradation' of their Mainframe processing performance. The Bank confirms it expects to pay between £5 million and £7.5 million in compensation to customers for ‘inconvenience or distress'. 

When taking into account all of the information shared by Barclays, this means the bank could pay out up to £12.5 million in compensation due to outages. The second highest amount paid out by a firm in the last two years is £350,000 by the Bank of Ireland. 

The information is contained in correspondence from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, Santander, NatWest, Danske Bank, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank. Each bank and building society was asked the same questions on outages in outgoing letters from the Chair of the Treasury Committee last month. Barclays had additional questions about its response to its 31 January – 2 February outage.  

Common reasons given for the IT failures include problems with third-party suppliers, disruption caused by a change in systems and internal software malfunctions. 

Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Dame Meg Hillier MP, said: 

"For families and individuals living paycheck to paycheck, losing access to banking services on payday can be a terrifying experience. Even when rectified relatively quickly, it can cause real panic, which is why we wanted to get a proper understanding of why unplanned banking outages happen and how banks and building societies respond. 

“The fact there has been enough outages to fill a whole month within the last two years shows customers' frustrations are completely valid. The reality is that this data shows even the most successful banks and building societies hit technical glitches. What's critical is they react swiftly and ensure customers are kept informed throughout. 

"I am grateful to the banks for their responses and reassured that they are doing all they can to minimise the impact on their customers. I am particularly thankful to those who are compensating their customers well for the stress they endure and would encourage all to reflect on whether they are doing enough in that regard." 

ENDS  

Notes to editors: 

Aggregated data from correspondence