The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Technical decision · 2025
Barclays' mainframe software problem failed half of online payments on payday
A software problem in Barclays' UK mainframe on the last two days of January affected millions of customers and failed more than half of online payments.
Barclays · 2025-01-31
What happened
Between Friday 31 January and Sunday 2 February 2025 — the end of the January payday period — a software problem in Barclays' UK mainframe caused IT outages that affected millions of customers. More than half of online payments failed during the worst of it, and some customers could not see their balances or make transfers at all.
Barclays stressed that the problem was a software fault, not a cyberattack, and said it was working to get systems back to normal. The bank urged affected customers to contact it if they had been charged fees or suffered hardship from the outage, setting up a compensation process for those left out of pocket.
The incident drew criticism because it hit exactly when many salaries and benefits were paid, leaving people unable to pay bills or access their money for days. Barclays later said it would compensate affected customers, with related costs reported in the range of £5 million to £7.5 million.
Why it happened
- The fault sat in the core mainframe that underpins retail banking, so a single software problem took out payments, balances and transfers together.
- It hit on payday, when payment volumes are at their peak, so the failure multiplied the number of customers caught with no access to their money.
- Barclays initially kept the cause vague and asked customers to call, which added to confusion while systems were still down.
The lesson
A bank's core mainframe is a single point of failure for payments, balances and transfers; when a software fault lands on payday, the number of customers it strands is the cost.
Aftermath
Barclays set up a compensation process for affected customers and reported related costs estimated at £5 million to £7.5 million.
Sources
- Barclays hit by IT outages for second day — BBC, February 2025
- Barclays to pay millions in compensation after IT outage — BBC
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