HSBC secure payments system collapses

Online retailers are unable to process transactions for days

HSBC's IT performance has been poor in the past few days

HSBC has experienced problems on its online Secure ePayments system, which meant retailers could not process card transactions for the second time in the past two weeks.

Businesses were unable to sell anything online for over two days and it is estimated that millions of pounds were lost over the weekend, when the glitches occured.

According to the bank, the problems relate to its databases and the problems were forecast to be fixed by today.

The problems in the system follow the news that HSBC has lost a computer disc containing the confidential information of around 370,000 UK customers.