By Esmée Hardwick-Slack
Following action by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), banks in the UK have begun to publish the number of operational and security incidents that have occurred. This information is to help customers and small businesses find the right service form them, get the most out of it, and get help if things go wrong. It will also help comparison services and other media to compare current accounts.
The published data has revealed that major banks are suffering at least one outage a month, with the figures showing that most banks suffered more than 10 shutdowns between April and December.
Barclays bank had the highest number of incidents with 41 over a 9 month period, however the bank noted that these were very minor incidents. A spokesperson from Barclay said: “We take IT extremely seriously and we welcome transparency for our customers which is why we report every incident to the regulator, even minor glitches that have minimal impact on customers.”
Lloyds bank suffered 37 recorded shutdowns, the second highest number of incidents. The bank has had a number of customers reporting problems accessing their banking over the past month. Earlier this year the bank also struggled with payments processing across all three of its brands with around 400,000 transactions delayed.
However, the number of incidents does not necessarily translate to poor customer service. Barclays, despite having the highest number of shutdowns, was ranked second in the official rankings for mobile and online banking, and joint fifth for the overall satisfaction in a survey of 16,000 banking customers.
Have you been affected by IT shutdowns from your bank? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion on Twitter.
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