Bank services hit by internet outage - Barclays, NatWest, Santander issue updates

Customers with major banks including Barclays and Santander have reported issues accessing services amid the global internet outage.

Worried Britons have been reaching out to their bank providers for updates with some saying they have been unable to make payments.

A Santander customer said this morning (July 19) on X: "Is there an issue with Mastercard authentication...I've tried to pay a bill online and the confirm text doesn't come through."

They also asked if they could withdraw cash to pay for their shopping as "payments electronically in most stores aren’t working."

The bank said in response at around 9.30am: "There are some industry wide IT Issues that are affecting some of our customers. We apologise for any inconvenience. We're currently investigating this matter."

A representative also said: "You can try to use an ATM, if this does not work please try again later and keep an eye on news about the issue in the meantime."

Barclays customers have also had issues doing their banking today. A person asked on X at 10.30am: "Is Smart Investor down? I'm getting error code SM001. Customer service said this is linked with the Microsoft issue."

Another customer planning to make some purchases today asked: "Is Barclays affected by today's Microsoft outages looking to go out shopping but are in shop purchases working?"

The bank responded to them at 9.41am: "We're not experiencing any known issues about payments at the moment so you should be absolutely fine but you can keep an eye on our service status page here: https://status.uk.barclays."

At the time of writing, all services on the Barclays service status page are working as normal apart from Smart Investor.

A message on the group's website reads: "We're sorry, you may not be able to manage your Smart Investor account in the app, Online Banking or over the phone right now. All of our other services are working as normal."

Another Santander saver got in touch over X at 11.03am to complain they had been on the phone for an hour and a half waiting to talk to the bank.

They fumed: "This is absolutely ridiculous! Been waiting 1 1/2 hours - Why is no one answering?!"

A member of the customer help team said in response: "We're very sorry about this. Our call volumes are very high today due to IT issues affecting multiple customers across the industry today. We appreciate your patience as we investigate this issue."

We're aware of an IT outage that was affecting companies across the globe but we haven't been made aware that any of our branches have been affected by this so far.

A NatWest customer asked over X if branch services have been affected as they were planning to go in to make a payment.

The bank said in an update at 10.11am: "We're aware of an IT outage that was affecting companies across the globe but we haven't been made aware that any of our branches have been affected by this so far."

A Nationwide Building Society customer contacted the group saying they were having issues. They asked at 11.14am: "Can I ask if your mobile app is down? It’s constantly trying to open on my phone either no success."

Responding at around 11.30am, the group said: "We're not currently aware of any technical issues with the banking app.

"Please check your app is fully up-to-date in your app store and then restart your device before trying again."

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