Barclays claims IT glitch that locked customers out is now fixed

Disruption left customers unable to make payments or access cash

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Barclays customers could not access cash or make payments

After three days of disruption which left customers unable to make payments or access cash, Barclays announced yesterday that the problem had been resolved.

After nearly three days of service downtime, Barclays announced on Sunday, February 2, that it had resolved a technical glitch that affected its online banking services over the weekend.

The disruption which left customers unable to view balances, make payments, or access funds began on Friday and coincided with payday for many UK workers and self-assessment tax return deadline.

While many feared the downtime could be a cyberattack, the high street bank stated on X that the issue was not linked to any other incident and assured customers they would not suffer financial losses due to the downtime.

“There is no indication this is related to anything other than a technology issue and your data and money are secure,” the bank shared via its UK Help handle.

Protracted disruption triggers customer discontent

Following the incident, Barclays encouraged customers to make withdrawals using their bank cards. However, many affected customers reported being unable to access cash via cash machines, sparking further frustration.

Sky News reported the case of a couple stranded in Australia who were unable to access their Barclays account with one partner vowing to switch banks upon their return to the UK.

As the service outage continued, some customers lashed out at the bank after they were asked to turn to friends and families for support or reach out to food banks.

Outage monitoring service Down Detector recorded nearly 5,000 complaints about Barclays’ services on Saturday alone, more than double the number logged on Friday, according to BBC.

In response, Barclays has pledged to work round the clock to ensure unresolved issues are attended to while urging customers to monitor their accounts closely and reach out if issues persist.

While the immediate crisis seems to have been resolved, the incident is likely to ignite broader discussions about system resilience in banks, and of the resilience of wider Critical National Infrastructure.