Nationwide system failure hits banking giant HSBC

Customers who called the HSBC internet banking helpline yesterday afternoon were also told the service was unavailable.

HSBC spokesman Mark Hemingway said: “We have identified some problems with our services. Internet banking is currently down and some of the ATMs are not working.

“We are aware of the issues and we are working to get the services up again as soon as possible.”

Mr Hemingway said the problems began at 2.45pm and only affected customers in the UK.

He said he was confident there was no security risk to customers’ accounts as a result of the glitch.

The problems sparked a storm of complaints on social networking site Twitter as worried customers were unable to withdraw money from HSBC cash machines and could not make transfers online.