Bank outages and IT failures

When a bank – or other financial business – experiences a problem with its IT system, such as a technical error or outage, it can cause problems for customers.

Following an IT failure at a bank, we see complaints about its consequences from customers, for reasons including:

• their wages were paid into their account late, and their bank charged them for going overdrawn
• they missed making a payment to someone else – like a credit-card company, landlord or mortgage provider – who then charged them
• a payment to their savings account was delayed and they lost interest on their savings
• as a small business, they couldn’t take or make payments because of disruption to their business account, and so lost out on trade
• they had to pay extra costs to sort out problems caused by the bank outage – for example, for phone calls or travel, or legal bills to resolve issues caused by the disruption, such as a delay in buying a house
• they were scammed by a fraudster pretending to be from their bank who was trying to get access to their account. Read more about how we can help with complaints about fraud and scams.

When we look at complaints about IT failures and bank outages, we use the regulatory and legal standards that applied at the time of the event the customer is complaining about. If the complaint is about a payment, for example, we will use the Payment Services Regulations 2017.

However, the details of these cases depend on how a particular outage or IT failure affected each individual customer. That means the rules, regulations and guidance we use will depend on the circumstances of each case.

We only look at complaints you've had an opportunity to deal with first. If the consumer is unhappy with your decision, or you don't respond to them within the time limits, they can come to us. 

Each case is different, so what we require will vary. But we’ll look at the facts and evidence from both you and your customer. What we consider will usually include:

• relevant laws, rules and regulations, guidance, standards and codes of practice that were in place when the event happened, including the Consumer Duty
• how your customer says they were affected by the outage, IT failure or technical error
• how you tried to support your customer and – if they were vulnerable – whether you were proactive in contacting them and offering help
• how you tried to put things right

We may ask additional questions, or for specific information, for example, to explore whether your firm complied with the Consumer Duty.

We follow the FCA’s dispute resolution rules (DISP). If we uphold a consumer's complaint, we'll tell you what you need to do to put things right. This could be by telling you to:

• correct a credit file
• refund any extra costs your customer had to pay as a result of the IT outage
• compensate them for any distress or inconvenience they’ve experienced as a result of the problem

 How we handle complaints

Businesses and consumer advisers can contact our Business Support Hub on 020 7964 1400 for information on how we might look at a particular complaint, or for guidance on our rules and how we work.

We also work with businesses and other organisations to help prevent complaints.