London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland online banking systems crash

Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland online banking systems crash

Millions of customers were affected but online and mobile banking are back to normal

The new year got off to a bad start for millions of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers, who were unable to gain access to their accounts through the banks’ websites and mobile apps for almost nine hours because of an outage.

The three brands, which are part of Lloyds Banking Group, apologised repeatedly to customers after the problem started at about 4am on New Year’s Day, a bank holiday when branches are shut.

They put out the same statement on Twitter on Wednesday morning: “We know our customers are having issues with internet and mobile banking. We’re sorry about this and we’re working to have it back to normal soon.”

By lunchtime the three brands said internet and mobile banking were back to normal. They tweeted: “We’re sorry for the issues with it this morning. Thanks for your messages.”

The issue prevented customers from logging in via the web and the mobile app. Telephone banking, card payments and ATM transactions were not affected. The bank said it was an internal problem, not a cybersecurity one, which its IT team had now fixed.

With 22 million current account customers, Lloyds Banking Group is the UK’s largest provider and also offers the most “basic” bank accounts. It has 13 million active online customers, of which more than 9 million are mobile users. All of them were potentially affected.

A spokeswoman was unable to say whether customers would receive any compensation but added that anyone who had incurred charges as a result of the outage should get in touch with their bank.

Angry customers reported on social media that they could not access banking services from their computers or smartphones and had been locked out of their accounts for hours. Many also complained that they had not been given a timescale for when online services would be back up and running again.

Customers were told to call their bank if they needed to transfer funds urgently, but some said they were unable to get through, and complained they were put on hold for a long time before being cut off.

One customer asked Lloyds whether it would waive his overdraft fee, and the bank told him to raise this with its customer service team.





A number of UK banks have experienced outages in recent months. NatWest’s online and mobile phone app crashed on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

By far the worst meltdown was at TSB last year, caused by the change to a new IT platform before it had been fully tested. It resulted in almost 1.9 million customers being locked out of their accounts and the problems took months to fully resolve.

In October, MPs warned that IT failures in the banking sector were running at an unacceptable rate.

The Treasury select committee said customers were being left “cashless and cut off” after problems at several financial groups, adding: “The current level and frequency of disruption and consumer harm is unacceptable.”

With bank branches and cash machines disappearing, customers are increasingly reliant on online banking services, but these have been severely disrupted by IT failures at firms including TSB, Visa, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, the committee said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×