HSBC UK and First Direct Hit by Major Online Banking Outage

HSBC and its online banking arm First Direct were hit by a major outage, leaving thousands of customers unable to access accounts or complete payments for several hours on Wednesday. The disruption began around 11am local time, with users reporting error messages and a failure to load balances or transaction details. The problems extended to both mobile and online platforms, according to monitoring services tracking outages.

Across the country, many customers reported being unable to view their balances or transfer money, with some receiving persistent error messages such as “Sorry, some of your information isn’t available right now.” The volume of reports surged to well into the thousands by mid-morning, indicating a widespread service failure affecting HSBC UK and its sister brand First Direct, which operates primarily as an online-focused bank under the HSBC umbrella. HSBC acknowledged the issue publicly, saying it was aware of the problems, apologizing, and stating that it was investigating as a matter of urgency, with updates to come when available.

From the customer perspective, social media posts painted a picture of disrupted access and heightened concern. Some users...