HSBC glitch causes thousands of Britons to be without payment during bank holiday weekend

Thousands of Britons did not receive their wages in late August because of a computer glitch, just before a bank holiday weekend. HSBC Holdings plc, a British multinational banking and financial services company, said they hoped to have the 275,000 individual payments that did not go through that day to be completed by the Saturday morning following the glitch.⁽¹⁾

The bank’s electronic payment system that business banking customers use to make and receive payments suffered a malfunction. The glitch didn’t just affect HSBC customers but also affected customers from other banks who were expecting to receive payment from HSBC accounts as well.

Sam Clarke, an HSCB customer, told sources that not a single one of his 120 employees had received payment. “There’s been very little or no valuable communication from HSBC. It’s turning into a nightmare as the hours roll on with no word,” he complained.⁽²⁾

HSBC issued an apology at the time, stating that they are “committed to ensuring that no one loses out as a result of today’s unacceptable problems. Customers who do not receive the delayed payment by Saturday morning should speak with their bank in the first instance.”⁽²⁾

The bank made contact with the Bank of England about the situation, as well as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.

The incident follows a similar computer glitch that happened back in June. A malfunction in the IT payment system prevented an estimated 600,000 payments from reaching the accounts of Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS).⁽¹⁾

That malfunction occurred a mere seven months after RBS was fined $86 million by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority for a computer glitch that caused millions of customers to be without access to their accounts for weeks. RBS, NatWest, and Ulster Bank customers were all affected by another glitch at RBS in June 2012.^(1,2)

Officials report that the most recent glitch at HSBC was not caused by hackers. The bank’s biggest cost won’t be financial but the loss of trust from its customers.

Sources include:

(1) Reuters.com

(2) BBC.com