Barclays will pay up to £7.5 million in compensation to customers after a three-day IT outage meant more than half of its payments failed.
The IT incident started at around 9:45am on Friday 31 January and lasted until the end of the weekend, with systems returning to normal on Sunday 2 February.
Customers of Barclays were unable to access online and mobile banking during the period, though were still able to use their debit cards as usual, including withdrawing money from an ATM. Some 56% of its payments failed during the period as a result of “severe degradation” to its UK mainframe.
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In a letter to the Treasury Select Committee, which was investigating IT outages among UK banks, Barclays UK chief executive Vim Maru has said the bank is working to identify all customers affected as part of a “proactive remediation effort”.
Maru said they are prioritising efforts to identify and provide support to “customers with vulnerable characteristics” and said that “no customer will be out of pocket as a result of this incident.”
The incident was the 33rd such outage that Barclays has encountered over the last two years, which are thought to have affected an estimated total of 3.3 million customers.
This round of compensation will see the total amount that the bank has paid back to customers over IT faults in the last two years rise to £12.5 million.
The timing of the outage also caused some trouble for customers who tried to fill out their HMRC Self Assessment tax returns. The deadline to file was 31 January, the same day as the IT outage.
Maru told MPs Barclays acknowledges that the outage caused “loss or distress and inconvenience” to its customers “through no fault of their own,” justifying a need for compensation.
“Our initial estimate is that we expect to pay out between £5 million and £7.5million to our Barclays UK customers for inconvenience or distress caused by this incident,” the chief executive wrote.
“We continue to work through the impact to ensure no customer or client will be out of pocket as a result of the incident.”
What other bank outages have occurred?
Though Barclays is one of the most notable recent examples, owing to the extent of disruption that its IT problems caused, it is certainly not the only UK bank that has suffered outages in recent years.
The Treasury Select Committee found nine of the top banks and building societies in the UK had their services disrupted as a result of unplanned technology and systems outages in the last two years.
This amounts to at least 158 banking IT failure separate incidents between January 2023 and February 2025, leading to at least 803 hours of disruption to customers – the equivalent of 33 days.
A full list of UK banks and building societies that suffered outages in the last two years can be seen below:
|
Bank |
Number of incidents |
Compensation paid |
Hours affected |
|
Barclays |
33 |
Up to £5 million |
93 |
|
HSBC |
32 |
£232,697 |
176 |
|
Santander |
32 |
£17,000 |
116 |
|
Nationwide |
18 |
£77,452 |
70 |
|
NatWest |
13 |
£348,000 |
194 |
|
Lloyds |
12 |
£160,000 |
61 |
|
AIB |
9 |
£590 |
29 |
|
Danske |
5 |
0 |
42 |
|
Bank of Ireland |
4 |
£350,000 |
22 |
Source: Treasury Select Committee
Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Dame Meg Hillier MP said losing access to banking services on a payday can be “terrifying” for those “living paycheck to paycheck”.
She expressed concern about the number of outages, saying: “The fact there has been enough outages to fill a whole month within the last two years shows customers’ frustrations are completely valid.
“The reality is that this data shows even the most successful banks and building societies hit technical glitches. What’s critical is they react swiftly and ensure customers are kept informed throughout.”.
Will I get compensation for a bank outage?
If your banking services are disrupted as a result of an IT outage, you could be able to get compensation.
As mentioned above, Barclays plans to pay up to £7.5 million to customers affected by their most recent outage, and many other banks have also made some pay outs.
Nationwide, for example, has paid out £348,000 in the last two years, and NatWest has paid £348,000 to customers in the same time period.
Different banks will have different eligibility criteria that you have to fit, and you may not get any compensation.
How to get compensation after a banking app IT outage
If an outage meant that you were unable to use your bank account as you usually would, then it could be worth contacting customer support to see if you can get compensation.
Contact your bank
Your first action should be to raise a complaint with your bank. If you have been left worse off through no fault of your own, then your bank’s customer support team should be able to guide you through what options are available to you. If all goes well, they may be able to fix the problem there and then.
However, customer support from some banks is less than helpful. If you feel as though your bank did not adequately investigate or resolve your dispute, your next step will be to contact the Financial Ombudsman.
Contacting the Financial Ombudsman
The Financial Ombudsman is a free service set up by the government to sort out complaints between financial businesses and their customers.
The organisation can help customers who have problems with their bank accounts, payments, investments, mortgages, and much more. They are tasked to fairly listen to both sides of a dispute and should not be biased against either side.
Once you provide your details to the ombudsman, they will investigate your case and bring a ruling to you that you are able to accept or reject.
If you find the ruling to your satisfaction (i.e. they uphold your complaint), then the ombudsman can order your bank to compensate you.
Once you accept a decision from the ombudsman, it is unlikely that you will be able to pursue the matter in court.
If you do not find the ombudsman’s ruling satisfactory, then you can reject it. However, this means your involvement with them will come to an end and they will be unable to help you any further.
You will still have the option to take your case to court, but the ombudsman will not be involved in this.
