A series of service disruptions have affected major British financial institutions recently, causing payment delays that impacted hundreds of customers.

The Lloyds and Halifax banking apps were down for several hours, preventing customers from transferring funds and accessing mobile and online banking services. The bank advised its users not to attempt duplicate payments and assured them efforts would be made to avoid any financial loss due to the disruptions.

Previous Issues

Over 600 Barclays customers reported failed payments and incorrect account balances over the weekend, leading many workers to miss access to their paychecks for several days.

Battle with Technological Advances

No official reasons have been provided for these banking outages. An industry expert suggested that banks struggle to keep up with evolving technologies.

Financial technology expert Chris Skinner told PA News Agency that the complex array of tech systems required for modern banking means banks may be handling too much. Many banks have turned to fintech partners for digital solutions, but this comes with its own challenges. These tech partners prioritize innovation over reliability and often operate under less stringent regulatory standards than financial institutions.

Fintech Challenges

Concerns about the lack of a framework governing fintech partners were highlighted after the recent failure of fintech firm Synapse, which resulted in millions of consumer funds being frozen.

The UK banking outages might not have worldwide impact, but similar issues at various financial institutions are a cause for concern—especially since many of the same fintech providers serve multiple banks.