Barclays Bank has issued a formal apology to its customers following significant technical glitches over the weekend, which resulted in disrupted services and delayed payments. The bank has confirmed the issue has been resolved and has processed all the delayed transactions. Prior to this confirmation, customers had reported seeing outdated account balances, with many unable to access their funds.
Following the widespread outrage, Barclays issued statements through its spokesperson asserting, "We are very sorry for any disruption and willensurethat no impacted customer is left out of pocket." This marks the bank's attempt to alleviate customer frustrations stemming from the considerable inconvenience caused by the outage.
The technical issues began to surface on Friday, intensifying through the weekend. Barclays officials confirmed the outage was due to IT problems and stated it was not related to a cyber attack. This clarification was particularly important as customers scrambled to ascertain the nature of the problem.
"The technical issue impacting our customers on Friday and Saturday has been resolved and delayed payments processed. Customers can use our app, bank online, call us, use their cards, and withdraw cash," the spokesperson reassured the public. Barclays also noted they are working to update account balances and address any outstanding issues for customers.
The glitch came at particularly troubling timing for many, coinciding with the end of January, which is the first payday since Christmas and also the deadline for self-assessment tax returns due at midnight on January 31. This overlap heightened the significance of the outage as numerous Barclays customers reported being unable to process important financial transactions, including tax payments.
To add to the growing public concern, HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) clarified it would not penalize individuals who faced difficulties meeting the January 31 deadline due to the Barclays service outage. Customers have been assured they will not incur the typical £100 fine for failing to meet their tax payment obligations, provided the fault lay with the bank’s technical difficulties.
Among those affected by the disruptions was civil servant Paola Mereu, 39, who faced dire consequences when the payment for her new home failed due to Barclays’ technical issues. "We drove down to (West Sussex on Friday) and we had all our things in a moving van and were waiting outside, and unfortunately, around one o'clock, my solicitor calls and says 'Barclays is having some issues and we are unable to complete the sale,'" Mereu recounted, illustrating the severe personal impact of the bank's IT failures.
Her family's predicament turned even graver as they found themselves rendered homeless after selling their previous home. "So we sold our house - we had the money fromthat - but we were unable to complete the other part of the sale, so we areessentially homeless," she lamented. Currently, the Mereu family is staying with her mother in London, with their belongings still packed away in the moving van parked outside.
The bank has indicated their commitment to addressing these grievances, advising customers who may be eligible for compensation due to the disruption to contact them directly. A Barclays spokesperson mentioned, "We are keeping our call centres open for longer this weekend and we will be proactively contacting customers who may be vulnerable." This gesture reflects Barclays' attempt to mitigate the fallout from the significant service interruption.
The outage, characterized by its length and volume of affected customers—estimated to be millions—has raised questions about operational resilience within major banks like Barclays, renowned as the UK's most widely used banking service.
With the technical issues resolved, the challenge for Barclays will be rebuilding trust with their customer base. While they have addressed immediate needs, the long-term effects of this incident are yet to be measured. The bank is under scrutiny not only for its service outages but for how effectively it can compensate those affected and improve its systems to prevent future occurrences.