For thousands of HSBC and First Direct customers, banking ground to a stop this morning as a huge technical glitch prevented account holders from logging in. Rather than being greeted with their balance, angry customers were shown the mysterious ‘err03’ message or simply informed that they should “try again later.”
The problem started around 11am, and it led to blanket disruption all over the UK. Complains poured in through outage monitor Down Detector, which indicated a sudden surge in complaints from all over.
“We’re aware some customers can’t currently access banking services. We’re genuinely sorry and are looking into it urgently. We will update as soon as we can,” HSBC tweeted on X.
Both mobile and online banking services were impacted, leaving clients without access to their funds, unable to make payments, or even see their transaction history.
HSBC’s service status page validated the disruption: “We’re sorry that some customers are having trouble using mobile banking, we’re working hard to investigate and get this fixed.”
Surprisingly, the bank reported that all other services were operating normally—just not the ones most people need to use on a day-to-day basis.
Customers accessing their HSBC or First Direct apps this morning were met not with their account balances, but with a cryptic error message. The glitch, which occurred at about lunchtime, prevented many from doing basic banking operations.
With more than 15 million active customers in the UK, 600,000 businesses among them, the effect has been huge. Both HSBC and its sibling brand, First Direct, were entangled in the matter. Even financial services customers of Marks & Spencer, also run by HSBC, could have faced knock-on consequences.
The bank has been asking such customers to call its customer service helpline directly. But most customers used social media to vent their frustration, with some users complaining of lengthy waiting times and ambiguous updates.
Despite acknowledging the issue promptly, HSBC has yet to confirm when full services will be restored. The bank insists its teams are working “as a matter of urgency,” but users remain in the dark for now.
For a company that prides itself on digital innovation and customer access, today’s events are a stark reminder of how reliant we’ve become on tech and how frustrating it can be when it fails.
