HSBC experienced a significant disruption on Tuesday afternoon, impacting both mobile and online banking services in the UK.
According to the troubleshooting platform DownDetector, reports of issues began to surge around 3:20 PM. Frustrated customers took to social media to seek information, as the bank had not announced any planned maintenance.
In a message shared on X (formerly Twitter), HSBC acknowledged the disruptions, stating:
"Service update 4:12 PM: We apologize for the unavailability of certain services in online and mobile banking. We understand this is frustrating, and our teams are actively investigating the issue."
This outage occurred at a particularly sensitive time for the bank, coinciding with recent inquiries from politicians regarding the effects of IT failures. This scrutiny followed a recent three-day outage at Barclays Bank, which notably affected customers on payday.
Update:
In a follow-up statement to Finextra at 5:45 PM, HSBC confirmed that its online and mobile banking services had been restored following earlier intermittent issues. The bank assured customers that debit and credit card transactions, digital wallets, and ATMs were functioning normally. They expressed gratitude for customer patience and apologized for any inconvenience caused.