HSBC has resolved a major technical issue that left thousands of customers unable to access online banking services and mobile applications for five hours on Wednesday, the bank has confirmed.

The outage began at approximately 11:00 BST, with customers reporting error messages including an "err03" code when attempting to access their accounts through digital channels.

The problems also affected First Direct, HSBC's online-focused banking brand.

According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, thousands of people across the UK reported difficulties accessing their banking services.

By 15:05 GMT, HSBC UK's service status page indicated that both mobile and online banking had returned to normal operation.

"Mobile and online banking services are returning to normal following an earlier disruption," an HSBC UK spokesperson said. "We're really sorry, and appreciate our customers' patience as we continue to work behind the scenes to ensure a full recovery."

The bank also issued an apology statement to the BBC, saying: "We apologise to our customers who were impacted, and we'll continue to monitor systems closely."

During the outage, frustrated customers took to social media to express their concerns about the disruption. The bank advised those requiring urgent access to their accounts to contact its customer services helpline whilst technical teams worked to resolve the issue.

HSBC operates 15 million active personal accounts and 600,000 business accounts in the UK.

The bank also manages financial services for Marks & Spencer alongside its HSBC and First Direct brands.

The incident highlights ongoing challenges with digital banking reliability in the UK.

In March, British lawmakers reported that nine major UK banks and building societies experienced at least 803 hours of unplanned technology outages over two years, affecting millions of customers' access to their funds.

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