Nationwide suffers payday payments outage

Nationwide customers have reported problems making payments after the building society suffered a software failure related to the faster payments service.

The problem occurred on what is payday for many, with customers experiencing issues using online banking and mobile apps.

Responding yesterday (28 February), Nationwide said in a statement: “There is currently a delay regarding faster payments as a result of a technical issue which we are working hard to resolve.

“Transactions are being temporarily queued while we get services back to normal and will be processed as soon as possible. All other services are working.”

According to Downdetector, the problems peaked at 11am in the morning of 28 February, when 400 customers reported problems. Nationwide’s service status webpage has since reported that services are now working normally.

Nationwide’s customer service tweeted: “We’re sorry, due to a technical issue some incoming and outgoing payments are delayed at the moment. If you’ve made a faster payment, there’s no need to resend it. Standing orders, direct debits and cards are working normally.

“We’re working hard to resolve this issue and apologise for any inconvenience caused. No member will be left out of pocket as a result of this issue and all associated Nationwide fees and charges will be refunded. All other services are working normally.”

As banks and building societies increasingly move to digital services, they will be ranked in terms of service availability and the speed with which they can resolve problems.

The building society also suffered an outage in December 2021, just before Christmas.

Following the latest outage, one Nationwide customer tweeted: “A ‘technical issue’ occurs occasionally. This is an ongoing problem which needs addressing! ‘No member will be left out of pocket’ some of your customers currently are!!! Right now unable to pay bills etc. SORT IT OUT!!!”

Nationwide is an example of a financial services business that has transformed through tech.

It has been on a long tech investment journey for over a decade. When most financial services firms were slashing spending, due to the global financial crash of 2008, Nationwide was investing heavily in IT.

At that time, it embarked on a £1bn project to transform its technology, which followed years of underinvestment. It created the foundations for the company to adopt the latest technology when it emerges. Today, it’s using fintech to transform the business.