Payday Problems: HSBC Glitch Delays Salaries

Around 275,000 bank payments have been held up by a computer glitch at HSBC - with many people reporting they have not received their monthly salaries.

Some people - including customers of other banks - have had to cancel holidays and weekend getaways ahead of the bank holiday.

Salaries that should have arrived in personal accounts overnight have instead got caught up in the national Bacs payment system.

HSBC has said it may not be able to get the delayed payments through by the end of the day.

Matthew Robinson is co-founder of Hove-based translating service UK Techtrans, where the problem has left his eight employees and 100 suppliers unpaid.

Many have had to cancel holidays this weekend, he said.

He told Sky News: "Today has been an absolute calamity.

"It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) affects our business in a bad way and I cannot get through to (HSBC) on their phones."

Nigel Moore, a sales representative in Exeter who has also had to cancel plans for a long weekend getaway, realised something was wrong when he checked his bank balance at around 5am, adding that there was no communication from HSBC telling him what had happened or what he could do.

He told Sky News: "I've got direct debits which are set to go on Tuesday and if I don't get paid I will incur bank charges as I will significantly be over my overdraft.

"This includes my child support payments to my ex-wife and I have not been informed as to whether I will be still liable for that. So not only will I have to sort out bills but have awkward conversations with the CSA (Child Support Agency)."

A Twitter (Xetra: A1W6XZ - news) user wrote: "None of my staff have been paid. Cannot get through to them on the phone. Absolute shambles of a bank! Extremely poor performance."

HSBC said the fault was in information used to process some payments from HSBC business customers, including payments to customers of other banks.

The bank, which has 48 million customers in 72 countries, including 16.1 million in the UK, added: "HSBC apologises for the inconvenience this has caused. We are taking immediate steps to ensure the payments reach beneficiaries as quickly as possible.

"We will work with other banks to ensure that customers do not lose out as a result of today's problems."

Payment issues were being highlighted on Twitter as early as 7.30am but at that stage HSBC was yet to even realise the glitch, telling customers that it was not aware of any problems.

It also appears from Twitter reports that some HSBC customers are unable to login to their online banking accounts.

The Financial Conduct Authority said it would ensure HSBC did not leave people out of pocket.

The Bacs system deals with transactions worth around £50bn every day.

HSBC customers were advised to call 03457 404 404 for further information.

In June 600,000 payments failed to reach the accounts of RBS (LSE: RBS.L - news) customers (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .