Online problems at HSBC have run into a second day as the bank begins an inauspicious start to the New Year.
Customers first began complaining about the online blackout as they returned to work on 4 January when up to 17 million personal and business customers were locked out of their accounts for up to nine hours.
The bank has managed a workaround for a business customers using online and mobile banking, although personal customers remain unable to access Internet banking; and those services that have been restored are running at significantly reduced capacity.
The bank has yet to give an estimate of when full services will be restored, saying its tech team is working flat-out to get customers back online. In the interim, customers are being advised to visit a bank branch to make payments.
Venting their fury at the issue on social media, some have complained about being charged overdraft fees while unable to top-up their account balances. In a statement, the bank says: "We will ensure customers do not lose out as a result of this issue."
MP Andrew Tyrie, who heads the influential parliamentary Treasury Committee, has waded in, demanding an explanation from HSBC's chief executive and regulators for an explanation of the latest in a string of IT failures at Britain's biggest banks.
“Barely six months after the last glitch in their under-performing IT systems, HSBC is apologising again to its customers," he says. “The frequency of these failures across the financial services sector suggests a systemic weakness in IT infrastructure. This is concerning."