HSBC's mobile banking app crashed on Tuesday evening, locking thousands of customers out of their accounts. Both personal and business users were unable to transfer money or check balances, with an error message directing them to call a helpline.
Customers took to social media to express frustration. One user described the app as “flaky at best”, while others threatened to switch banks. Keith Mortiss tweeted: “Mobile banking app not working AGAIN – sort this out HSBC, before I move my accounts.” Sarah Drayton said the app had been “playing up” all day, and Mary Birch called the failure distressing.
HSBC apologised and said it was working to fix the outage. A spokesperson confirmed the issue began at 5:40pm and was resolved by 6:50pm. “An earlier issue where customers were unable to log on to HSBC’s personal internet banking, business internet banking and HSBCNet has been resolved,” they said.
This is not the first time the app has failed; previous outages occurred in September, on Black Friday in November, and earlier this month. MPs on the Treasury committee are investigating IT failures in the financial sector following a series of technical meltdowns at high street banks.
