Hundreds of thousands of HSBC customers unpaid due to IT glitch

Bacs glitch raises prospect of a cash-strapped bank holiday for those affected

HSBC has admitted that 275,000 payments haven't gone through to customers, meaning potentially hundreds of thousands of individuals will not have received wages ahead of the bank holiday.

"We are taking immediate steps to ensure the payments reach beneficiaries as quickly as possible," said HSBC, as it described working with other banks to try and help patch over the problems and make sure customers don't lose out.

The problem, which is affecting Bacs [Bankers' Automated Clearing Services] systems directly, also extends to customers who are due to receive payments from HSBC accounts, with many having not yet received money they are owed.

"We are currently investigating alternative ways to ensure credits are received today," HSBC tweeted earlier this afternoon, encouraging those affected to follow them on Twitter to receive "further updates".

It has been reported that HSBC has already contacted the Bank of England directly, as well as the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority).

Bacs has also said it is aware of an "isolated issue" affecting one of its members, a spokesperson saying that the Bacs system "is operating as normal" but that the group is "currently working with [its] partners to help resolve this as quickly as possible".

John Rakowski, director of technology strategy at application performance management and operations analytics firm AppDynamics, commented:

"Delivering a first-class banking service to customers relies on multiple applications and IT systems working seamlessly. The HSBC online banking glitch should serve as a strong reminder to retail banks of the technical difficulty in delivering a flawless digital banking experience, which today's customers expect.

"It's simply unacceptable that thousands of customers have been left out of pocket due to an IT glitch. With new digital-only banks such as Atom entering the market, the pressure is on the banks to ensure their technology meets the needs of their customers."

Rakowski said banks must now ensure "end-to-end visibility across all digital transactions" in order to identify and repair emerging performance glitches as quickly as possible, before customers are impacted.

"Without this, banks are often looking for a needle in a haystack and putting customer loyalty at risk," he continued.

"Unfortunately, banking glitches are not uncommon and will continue to increase unless businesses readdress how they manage critical IT applications and infrastructure."

Earlier this year, RBS suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that saw over 600,000 transactions from RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank accounts affected. Another IT outage in 2012 saw RBS eventually fined £56m.

One Computing staffer has been suffering an ongoing problem with the Halifax bank, which chimes with Rakowski's observations about the need for visibility and robust infrastructure when serving customer needs.