Payday Problems: HSBC Transfers Held Up

People have reported salaries being held up as HSBC looks into problems thought to be linked to the national Bacs system.

On a day many would be expecting wages to arrive in their accounts, a number of Twitter (Xetra: A1W6XZ - news) users complained that payments had been delayed.

One posted: "None of my staff have been paid. HSBC when will this be sorted?"

Another said: "Bacs payment system down on payday and before Bank Holiday. Lovely."

The Bacs system processes transactions worth as much as around £50bn every day.

HSBC has said it is investigating. It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is not clear if customers of other banks are affected, but it is believed the issue relates to payments from HSBC rather than the wider Bacs system.

A spokesperson for HSBC told Sky News: "We are aware that some customers have not received expected credits today. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and are working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

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

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

Customers were advised to call 03457 404 404 for further information.

HSBC serves 48 million customers in 72 countries across the world.

It is not known how many accounts are affected, or whether this issue only affects UK customers.

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