UK banks are being hit by at least one major IT or security failure that disrupts customer payments on a daily basis, according to an investigation by Which? Money.

The consumer watchdog also found that the UK’s six largest lenders suffered at least one IT outage or security error every two weeks, with a total of 302 incidents that prevented customers from making payments in between March and December 2018.

The research found that crashes in digital banking systems were more frequent than had previously been thought, prompting Which? Money to step up its calls for a government-backed single regulator with a statutory duty to protect access to cash for consumers and build a sustainable infrastructure for the UK.

Since April last year, the Financial Conduct Authority has required banks to inform them of any major operational or security incident which prevents customers from using payment services.

Which? found the average number of major breaches across each of the 30 banks and building societies in its analysis was one a month, with some of the UK’s largest banking brands registering one breach every two weeks.

Barclays reported the most major incidents (41), at more than one every week in the last nine months of 2018.

It was followed by Lloyds Bank (37), Halifax/Bank of Scotland (31), NatWest (26), RBS (21) and Ulster Bank (18).

TSB, where the botched introduction of a new IT system last year caused 1.9 million people to lose access to online banking services, reported 16 incidents over the nine month period.

Which? said its latest findings, along with incidents like last year’s Europe-wide Visa payments outage, suggest that Britain’s financial system has “a long way to go before it will be resilient enough to support a no-cash society”.

Jenny Ross, Which? Money Editor, said: “Our research shows that these major banking glitches - which can cause huge stress and inconvenience to those affected - are even more common than we feared.

“This highlights why it is so important that a regulator is given responsibility to protect cash as a backup when technology fails and to ensure no-one is left behind as digital payments become more common.”

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