NatWest apologises as banking app goes offline

NatWest has apologised after clients have been left unable to make use of its cell banking app within the UK, stopping some from accessing their financial institution accounts.

Greater than 3,000 folks have reported issues on outage-checking website Downdetector for the reason that points first emerged at 0910 GMT.

The agency mentioned on its service standing web site that its on-line banking service was nonetheless working usually – although this has been disputed by some clients. Card funds are unaffected.

“We’re conscious that clients are experiencing difficulties accessing the NatWest cell banking app this morning,” a NatWest spokesperson instructed the BBC.

“We’re actually sorry about this and dealing to repair it as shortly as attainable.”

Clients have taken to social media to complain concerning the affect the IT failure is having on them.

One particular person mentioned they needed to “put again my buying due to it”, whereas one other mentioned they have been “ready to buy groceries” however could not switch cash to take action.

NatWest has suggested clients on social media that it has “no timeframe” for a repair, however mentioned its workforce is “working arduous” to resolve it.

Clients are being suggested to entry their accounts in different methods if they’ll – comparable to by means of on-line banking.

Nevertheless, some folks have reported issues with NatWest’s on-line service too, with one sharing an error message which they mentioned was displayed once they tried to make a cost.

Others have expressed frustration with the financial institution’s response, with one saying it was “disgraceful” there was no timeframe, whereas one other known as it “very poor service“.

“What I do not get is the financial institution closes a great deal of branches ‘to economize’ and forcing folks to depend on the app and on-line banking… however clearly hasn’t invested in a system that works correctly,” one angry customer said.

That is the newest in an extended line of banking outages.

In May, a number of major banks disclosed that 1.2m folks have been affected by them within the UK in 2024.

According to a report in March, 9 main banks and constructing societies have had round 803 hours – the equal of 33 days – of tech outages since 2023.

Inconvenient for patrons, outages come at a value to the banks, too.

The Commons Treasury Committee discovered Barclays may face compensation funds of £12.5m over outages since 2023.

Over the identical interval, Natwest has paid £348,000, HSBC has paid £232,697, and Lloyds has paid £160,000.

Different banks have paid smaller sums.