Barclays app outage deprives customers of banking services

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Barclays has experienced significant technological issues that have left customers unable to access some of the most basic banking services, including transferring money and making payments. 

Several functions were down on Friday including online banking, the Barclays app, and payments and transfers.

Barclays acknowledged the outage in an online statement and apologised to customers saying: “We know this isn’t ideal.” The bank has not explained what has caused the issue but it is because of a technical problem rather than a cyber attack, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. 

The outage came at a particularly critical time for Barclays’ more than 20 million UK customers, many of whom were set to receive their first pay cheque of the year. It also prompted frustrated responses from those who were on deadline to file their self-assessment tax returns with HMRC and make payments. 

“We know some customers may be having issues trying to make a payment to HMRC ahead of the deadline for self-assessment tax returns. We’re in direct contact with HMRC, they are aware of the technical issues with our system and have confirmed today’s issues will not result in late-payment penalties, as they don’t apply until 1st March,” said a spokesperson for the bank. 

“We will ensure that no customer is left out of pocket because of delayed payments caused by this incident.” 

A status update on the Barclays website at the time of writing showed that seven functions were having difficulties, including debit cards and their messaging service. No clear guidance was available on when the systems will be up and running again.

Barclays said earlier today that cards and cash withdrawals were working normally. However, a number of customers disputed this, saying they had been unable to make card payments.