Thousands of Lloyds Bank and Halifax customers have been locked out of their online banking services this afternoon, with widespread disruption reported across the United Kingdom.
The technical problems began at roughly 11:15 BST on Wednesday, leaving users unable to access mobile applications and web-based banking platforms.
Lloyds Banking Group, which describes itself as the country's largest retail and commercial banking provider serving 26 million customers through Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has acknowledged the difficulties.
"We're aware some customers are having issues with our app and online banking. We're really sorry about this," Lloyds Bank stated on X.
The banking group confirmed engineers are actively working to restore normal service.
Reports of disruption have been concentrated in London, Belfast and Cardiff, though customers in Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham and Manchester are also experiencing significant problems.
Many users have taken to social media to express their frustration at being unable to complete transactions during the outage.
"Can't use cards, online banking and app, what's is going on, need to pay for something and I can't," one customer wrote.
Another complained they were unable to purchase lunch during their only work break.
One frustrated user attempting to sell a vehicle said they could not access their account to receive a bank transfer, describing the situation as "useless."
Lloyds Bank apps have been hit by glitches in recent months | PAA separate customer reported having an Amazon purchase declined.
Most of the issues appear to lie with the app. Around 64 per cent of Down Detector's users are reporting an issue with their banking app, whilst another 14 per cent have reported an issue with logging in.
Another 13 per cent say there is a problem with online banking.
The technical fault has been displaying a 503 error message to users, indicating that servers are unable to process requests.
Both Halifax and Lloyds are affected simultaneously because they operate on shared digital infrastructure under the Lloyds Banking Group umbrella.
Halifax issued its own statement on X, telling customers: "Some customers are having issues with accessing our Mobile App right now. Bear with us as we fix this."
The banking group confirmed engineers are actively working to restore normal service
| PAA message within the Lloyds application advised users that logging out and back in might resolve the problem, though it acknowledged some may need to wait for a full fix.
"We're working hard to fix it and will let you know as soon as we're back to normal," the group added.
This is not the first time Lloyds Banking Group customers have faced technical difficulties in recent months.
In March, an IT glitch resulted in nearly half a million customers either viewing other people's transactions or having their own financial data shared with others.
Lloyds has launched an investigation | GETTYRegarding compensation for today's outage, customers are not automatically entitled to reimbursement.
Whether someone qualifies depends on how severely they were affected individually, such as missing a payment or suffering damage to their credit rating.
The length of the service disruption and how quickly the bank resolves matters also play a role in determining eligibility.
Those considering making a formal complaint are advised to gather evidence showing how the problems affected them and for how long.