Big Bank IT Crash Every 2 Weeks

According to the consumer group Which?  UK banks IT systems crash or have a security issue more than once day.

In April 2018, the Financial Conduct Authority made it compulsory for banks to report any major operational and/or security issues that prevent customers from using their banking services.

Since banks have been reporting issues, Which? reported 302 incidents in the last 9 months of 2018 and found 6 of the UK’s largest banks had at least one failure every 2 weeks.

Which? List:  Top IT failing bank performances in the last 9 months;

• Barclays - 41
• Lloyds - 37
• Bank of Scotland - 31
• Halifax - 31
• NatWest - 26
• TSB - 16 (after installing a new IT system)
• Nationwide - 5

Jenny Ross, editor from Which? said: “looking at our research we can see these major banking issues need to be monitored and regulated so there is a back up to protect customers should IT fail.”

Members of UK Finance, the bank representatives group, said: “Any failures that arose our members worked hard to minimise any disruptions, we shall work with regulators, government and banks to protect the UK’s financial system, customers and organisations.”

Comment

Very difficult issue.  IT and security is paramount.  Banks are under attack from cybercrime every second of every day so are constantly upgrading systems.  Human error dictates that there will be errors and downtime when building coding and security measures.  Would you prefer to go back to paper, checks and actually paying for your bank account as well as paying each time you write a cheque?  Many prefer the flexibility of online banking and mobile apps for free!  So it would bank IT is here to stay.