Banking glitch hits thousands of UK customers on payday

There’s never a good time for a bank or building society’s system to let people down - but a Friday is always bad as people prepare for the weekend.

And of course, the last Friday of the month is significant in terms of paydays and pensions being deposited into accounts.

This issue is affecting the UK's biggest banks and building societies including HSBC, Nationwide, Virgin Money and Barclays.

Nationwide is saying it expects all payments to go through by the end of the day and says only a small number of payments are being affected now. 

ITV News' Consumer Editor Chris Choi explains the fallout of the banking glitch

HSBC appears to be having two separate issues. One is affecting personal online and mobile banking, which it says is now largely resolved and people can now log in, but there are still some issues viewing recent transactions.

Also, HSBC customers sending payments may see a slow response or even a failure notice.

The bank is advising people to check with the intended payment recipient.

Virgin Money is saying access to its mobile banking app has been fully restored and new payments continue to flow normally. But there is a backlog of payments that has built up causing delays which they say they are working on to process.

The underlying cause is a third-party processor shared by these financial firms and it seems to be affecting transactions that were scheduled in advance for payment to today.

Not a good start to one of the busiest banking days of the month.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...