On Friday, June 28, 2024, customers of HSBC, Barclays, Virgin Money and Nationwide reported banking-app problems and delayed payments, including some salaries and pensions. Pay.UK later said the technical issue had been fixed and payments were returning to normal, though banks still had backlogs to clear. The disruption was temporary; the available reporting does not establish an official count of delayed pay deposits or indicate that customers’ money permanently disappeared.
What happened on June 28, 2024?
Customers reported trouble logging in to online and mobile banking, viewing recent transactions and making transfers. Some expected incoming payments—including wages and pensions—did not appear when customers expected them. Others saw errors when attempting payments.
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These symptoms were related but not identical. Restored access to an app did not necessarily mean payment processing had caught up: transactions could remain delayed or queued after customers could log in again. ITV reported that some HSBC customers regained access but might still see slow responses, error notices or delays in recent transaction information and payments. ITV’s June 28 report covered the service problems and banks’ updates.
The incident occurred on the last working day of June, a common payday. That timing heightened the impact for people relying on wages or pensions for rent, bills, food, travel and other payments due that day. It does not mean every customer missed payday: the reports described delays affecting some customers, not all account holders.
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Which banks and payments were affected?
Contemporaneous coverage named HSBC, Barclays, Virgin Money and Nationwide. Reported problems included digital banking access, transfers and incoming salary or pension credits. The effects varied by bank and customer; the incident should not be read as evidence that every UK bank or every payment type failed.
| Bank | What was reported |
|---|---|
| HSBC | Personal online and mobile banking access problems, alongside a payments issue affecting multiple banks. After access improved, some customers could still face slow responses, failed attempts or delayed transaction information. |
| Barclays | Payment problems, with Barclays saying it was working to restore Faster Payments. Customers reported delayed incoming payments and transfers. |
| Virgin Money | App access was restored, but a backlog of delayed payments remained. The bank warned customers not to retry a payment if the account had already been debited. |
| Nationwide | Some salary and pension payments were delayed. Nationwide said they were being processed and attributed the problem to a third-party payments issue. |
Pay.UK’s Faster Payments participant list includes Barclays, HSBC, Nationwide and Virgin Money. Participation in the system does not mean every customer or every transaction was affected in the same way.
What caused the disruption?
Contemporaneous reporting pointed to a shared or third-party payments problem rather than four unrelated bank failures. HSBC described a separate payments issue affecting multiple banks, while Nationwide referred to a third-party payments issue. Pay.UK said the technical issue had been fixed. Sky News reported the banks’ statements and Pay.UK’s update in its coverage of the disruption.
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The public accounts do not name the processor or provide a detailed technical post-incident explanation. They do not establish that Pay.UK caused the problem, that every Faster Payments participant was affected, or that a cyberattack or particular hardware or software failure was involved.
Pay.UK operates Faster Payments; banks provide customer accounts and the apps customers use to access them. A customer can therefore encounter an app-access problem, a payment-processing delay or both. A bank’s interface may also show an error even when a transaction has been accepted or remains queued for later processing.
How many people were affected, and when was service restored?
Sky News reported more than 7,000 Downdetector outage reports at about 8:45 a.m. on June 28. That is a count of reports to an outage-monitoring service, not a verified count of customers, delayed salaries or missed pensions. The available coverage does not give an official customer total.
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Later that day, Pay.UK said the technical issue had been fixed and payments were returning to normal. Some banks still had delayed payments to process, so technical resolution did not guarantee that every transaction appeared immediately. The documented event is historical, not a live outage alert.
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The available reporting describes delayed, failed or queued payments, not evidence that account deposits permanently disappeared. A missing entry or an app error during an outage is not, by itself, proof that a payment was cancelled or lost.
- Check both your balance and transaction history; look for a payment marked pending, queued or completed.
- If an outgoing payment showed an error, check whether the amount was debited before trying again.
- Ask the recipient whether the payment arrived, especially before initiating a replacement transfer.
- If an incoming payment remains missing after the bank says the backlog has cleared, contact the bank and the organisation that sent it.
Virgin Money specifically warned customers not to repeat a payment that had displayed an error if the money had already left the account, because the original could still be queued. A duplicate payment can create a second transfer even when the first one eventually completes.
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What to do if a salary, pension or transfer is still missing
- Check the bank’s official service updates. Use the bank’s app or website to see whether it has reported a continuing delay.
- Review the transaction history. Check for pending or completed entries as well as the available balance, and note any error message.
- Confirm the payment was submitted. Ask your employer or pension provider when it sent the payment and whether the account details used were correct. A payment not submitted by the payer is different from one delayed after submission.
- Avoid an immediate resend. Do not ask the payer to send the money again until you and the bank have checked whether the original is pending or has been credited.
- Contact the bank through an official channel. Use its published phone number or secure-message service, and give the payment date, amount, payer and any reference or error code.
- Keep records of the disruption and its costs. Save screenshots, timestamps, bank messages and evidence of any overdraft interest, returned-payment fee or late charge.
- Ask the bank to reimburse evidenced losses. Explain how the outage caused each cost and provide supporting documents. A general compensation payment is not automatic.
- Complain if the issue is not resolved. Follow the bank’s complaints process. If the complaint remains unresolved, you can consider taking it to the Financial Ombudsman Service after the bank has issued its final response or the applicable response period has passed.
What if a direct debit or bill payment failed?
First establish whether the payment failed, is pending or was processed late. Do not make a manual replacement payment until you have checked the transaction history and, where appropriate, contacted the biller; otherwise, you could pay twice.
- Contact the biller promptly if a direct debit, standing order or other bill payment was returned or missed. Ask about a new collection date and any late fee.
- Ask your bank to reverse charges caused by the outage and ask the biller to waive its charges where you can show the bank’s system was unavailable.
- Do not cancel a direct debit solely because it has not appeared yet. Confirm its status with the bank or biller first.
- Keep evidence of fees, interest and other actual costs so you can explain and support a reimbursement request.
The FCA has described same-day retry arrangements intended to reduce unnecessary unpaid-payment charges when funds arrive later the same day. Whether a retry applies depends on the bank, account terms and payment type; it is not a guarantee that every payment will be collected again. See the FCA’s information on bank retry systems.
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Customers can ask their bank to reimburse actual costs they can link to the disruption, such as overdraft interest, returned-payment charges or a biller’s late fee. Keep receipts, account statements and correspondence, and explain the causal link between the delayed payment and each charge. The outcome depends on the circumstances, evidence and the bank’s response; the incident does not establish an automatic payment to every affected customer.
This is separate from reimbursement rules for certain authorised push payment fraud. The FCA says mandatory rules for eligible UK Faster Payments and CHAPS APP fraud took effect on October 7, 2024—after this outage—and those rules concern fraud, not ordinary operational delays. The FCA’s consumer guidance explains that regime.
What is established—and what is not
- Established: On June 28, 2024, customers reported digital banking and payment problems at HSBC, Barclays, Virgin Money and Nationwide, including delays to some salaries and pensions.
- Established: Pay.UK said the technical issue had been fixed and payments were returning to normal, while banks worked through delays.
- Not established: An official count of affected customers or missed pay deposits. Downdetector reports are not a customer tally.
- Not established: The name of the third-party processor, a detailed technical cause, a cyberattack, or permanent loss of customers’ deposits.
- Not established: That every customer at the named banks, every Faster Payments user, or every UK bank was affected.
Sky News reported that the FCA was monitoring the situation and that the Bank of England was understood to be engaging with affected banks. That reporting does not amount to a finding of regulatory wrongdoing.
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