Thousands Of HSBC Users Face Digital Banking Outage On Black Friday!

Picture this, you’re excited about Christmas and all the shopping that goes along with it.

You want to take advantage of the superb deals that Black Friday brings and your online carts are full. However, there’s one problem: you’re trying to make payments but your banking app has crashed! #AAARRRGGHHH

Unfortunately, for thousands of people in the UK, this was more than just imagination, as users of HSBC weren’t able to access mobile and online banking services on Black Friday.

What was the problem? Let's explore!

What Happened With HSBC?

On Black Friday, HSBC’s online and mobile banking app services went down, causing distress to thousands of its customers in the United Kingdom, especially those looking forward to the sales across shopping platforms.
This also affected customers looking to make bill payments and post rent, peaking at over 4,000 customers.
The problem, which added to a list of woes British banks have been facing in recent times, began shortly after 0700 GMT on Friday and persisted till Friday night, with complete resolution coming on Saturday morning (around 0900 GMT).
The problem, which lasted for over 24 hours, witnessed many complaints on social media platforms, with some complaining of a lack of formal messaging from the bank and them finding out online. Even after the issue was resolved, the bank said some services may be slower than usual.
HSBC addressed the problems saying, “We apologise for the continued inconvenience caused by the disruption to personal mobile and online banking. The issue stems from our internal systems, and we are working hard to get a fix in place.”
Speaking on the impact of the issue, Sam Richardson, Deputy Editor of Consumer Advocacy magazine Which? Money, said, “This HSBC outage will cause a real headache for a lot of its customers. In the worst cases it could prevent people making essential payments such as rent and bills, but it also falls on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, where many people will be looking to make significant savings on big-ticket items.”

TechDogs-"A Screenshot Of HSBC's Message During The Outage"

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How Did HSBC Deal With The Problems?

Through a string of posts made on X (formerly Twitter), HSBC kept its customers updated about the status of the problem and resolution efforts.
It began with a post that read “We understand some customers are having trouble accessing banking services as usual right now. We're investigating this as a matter of urgency and will share an update as soon as possible.”
In the interim, HSBC provided solutions for customers, saying, “We’re really sorry for the continued, intermittent disruption to online and mobile banking. We’re working hard to fix it. You can still authorise online card purchases via SMS, as well as use your debit and credit cards for instore purchases as usual.”
HSBC continued providing updates, occasionally on an hourly basis, even assuring them of other services, such as debit and credit cards, contactless payment and ATMs to check balances, were working.
While HSBC conveyed that services were beginning to come online through an 11 pm update, it took till Saturday morning for HSBC to post that the problems were resolved, saying “Online and Mobile Banking services are back up and running following an earlier disruption to service but some services maybe slower as customers log in. We’re really sorry to those impacted and we’ll continue to monitor systems closely.”

TechDogs-"A Screenshot Of A String Of Posts Made By HSBC Through Its X Handle"

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Do you think such incidents highlight the need for banks and financial companies to increase efforts in ensuring the continuation of services during peak periods? Do you think this opens the door for software companies to create more resilient applications for financial services?

Let us know in the comments below!

First published on Mon, Nov 27, 2023

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