Barclays will shut down its online and mobile banking services this weekend, affecting 24 million customers, as part of the Bank of England's ringfencing rules. The outage will run from 11:30pm on Saturday until 3:30pm on Easter Sunday, during which customers cannot check balances, make payments, or use the Pingit app.
Debit and credit cards, as well as cash machines, will remain operational. The shutdown is the seventh and final stage of Barclays' IT reorganisation to move accounts into its new ringfenced retail bank, a process that began last summer with sort code changes.
Barclays is one of several UK banks, including HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, and Santander UK, implementing ringfencing to separate retail banking from riskier investment activities. The rules, introduced in 2011, aim to protect taxpayers from future bailouts.
Approximately 1,500 staff will work on the changeover from Barclays' technology centre at Radbroke Hall in Cheshire. Customers have been notified via messages and advised to transfer funds in advance, with payments made during the outage credited once services resume.
