HSBC IT systems down due to 'mainframe issue'

HSBC customers were unable to access online banking and ATMs for a short period of time on Friday due to a 'mainframe issue'.

Reports appeared on Twitter during Friday afternoon that customers of the bank were unable to withdraw cash from ATMs, while internet services were also unavailable for a period of time.

According to the bank the outage lasted only 30 minutes before systems were fully restored.

Speaking to ComputerworldUK, an HSBC spokesperson said the reason for the IT failure was an unspecified fault with its mainframe system. There were no planned updates were occurring at the time.

"Everything is now back up and running. Obviously we worked to resolve it as quickly as possible so that we weren't inconveniencing customers for any longer than we had to. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers."

"It was down for about half an hour. It was a mainframe outage - IT staff are still looking into it."

It is not the first time that HSBC has had both its online and ATM systems taken offline. In 2012 customers were unable to access accounts due an unspecified hardware glitch, with customers reporting that their bank cards were also rejected when trying to pay for goods in supermarkets.

The outage is the most recent in a long list out IT problems in the banking industry which has affected customers at many of the major banks.