(Credit: William - stock.adobe.com)

Reports of the problems surfaced around 7am, with a sharp increase in reported outages on Down Detector. Customers have complained of being unable to move money between accounts and missing salary payments.

Barclays has acknowledged the issue, stating they are working to resolve problems with payments. This follows a significant three-day outage in late January, which coincided with the UK income tax deadline. The bank is expected to pay up to £7.5 million in compensation for that incident, with potential total payouts for recent outages reaching £12.5m.

The January failure, attributed to a “severe degradation” of the mainframe computer, resulted in over half of online payments failing.

Barclays insists the issue was technical and not a cyber-attack. However, they are not alone in experiencing IT problems. Late February saw a simultaneous outage affecting Lloyds, Halifax, TSB, and Bank of Scotland, highlighting wider issues within UK banking infrastructure.

These technical failures are exacerbated by the ongoing closure of high street bank branches. UK Parliament reports show a dramatic decline in branch numbers, from 21,643 in 1986 to 6,870 in 2024. This trend disproportionately affects rural areas, where access to physical banking services is increasingly limited.