Major UK High Street banks hit by payment issues

Thousands of UK bank customers have been hit by payment problems affecting some of the biggest High Street lenders.

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

Many customers have complained on social media, with some saying their salaries have not been paid into their accounts.

HSBC told the BBC: "Customers sending payments online, by app or on the phone may see a slow response or see a failure notice.

"We advise them to please check with the recipient or view their recent transactions in the mobile app via the notifications icon before attempting to the send the payment again."

The bank apologised and said it was working hard to resolve the issue.

HSBC added that a separate issue affecting access to its online banking services had since been resolved, but that some people still might not be able to view recent transactions.

Meanwhile, Nationwide told the BBC it was aware of "third-party payments issues impacting some providers, including Nationwide" which had "delayed a small number of payments".

"This has unfortunately delayed a small number of payments, which we expect will be processed and paid later today.

"The overwhelming majority of payments were processed as normal. All other services are working as normal."

In response to complaints to its X account, the building society said it was aware "there is a delay with some customers receiving their salary or pension payments today".

"These payments are being processed, and will be paid into your account today," it added.

Barclays also acknowledged customers had been hit by the same issue in response to a complaint on X.

"So sorry to hear you've been caught up in the issue with regards to the payments being made and received.

"This is an issue with the faster payment system and it's happening across all banks."

The BBC understands that both 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.

Virgin Money was also affected by a payments issues earlier on Friday, which it said had since been resolved. However, it told the BBC it was still working through a backlog.

"We're aware of issues with payments across the banking sector today, and some of our customers have experienced delays to payments both in and out of their Virgin Money account."

"New payments are now flowing normally," it added, apologising for the issue. It said customer service call waiting times may be longer because of the problems.

Customers of the banks were particularly upset by the timing of the glitches, with the last Friday of the month is when many people are paid.

Many people also have to pay bills around that time.

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

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

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

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.