HSBC has yet to confirm the cause of the unexpected issue. Credit: William Barton/Shutterstock.

HSBC services have been restored following a two-hour outage that impacted both online and mobile banking services in the UK.

Website monitoring service DownDetector noted a sharp increase in reports of issues with the bank from nearly 3.20pm on 11 February.

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Although, HSBC’s website stated that no planned maintenance was underway for its digital services, many users took to social media to complain about login issues.

In a statement posted on social media platform X, HSBC wrote: “We’re working hard to fix an intermittent issue with Mobile and Online Banking services.

“Debit and credit cards, digital wallet and ATMs are all working. You can still authorise online card purchases via SMS. We’re really sorry, please check back for updates.”

Of the affected customers, 46% reported problems with mobile banking, 42% experienced issues with online banking, and 12% had trouble logging in online.

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While the services are now back online, HSBC has yet to confirm the cause of the unexpected issue, which seems to have affected only some UK users.

With over 34 million digitally active users, HSBC’s online banking services are among the most widely used in the country.

This follows an outage at Barclays, which plagued customers for almost three days.

Earlier this month, customers of Lloyds, Halifax and the Bank of Scotland too faced problems with their apps and online banking after service outages.

In this regard, data and analytics firm Globaldata has outlined infrastructure fragility at traditional banks in comparison with digital-only banks.

Globaldata Associate Analyst, Banking and Payments, Jonathan Vaughan Burleigh said: “While HSBC resolved its issues in less than a day, much faster than Barclays, such outages should not be happening at all. With the retail banking industry continuously transformed by digital challengers, incumbent banks must invest strategically to stay ahead of the curve and maintain consumer trust.”

He added: “If traditional banks fail to overhaul their digital strategies, dissatisfied customers will seek more reliable providers with superior digital experiences. Legacy banks have historically retained consumers through long-term relationships built on trust, but if that trust is eroded by poor service, digital challengers will be ready to welcome them with open arms.”

This comes amid a major overhaul at HSBC, which saw the bank reorganising into four businesses to speed up delivery against its strategic priorities and lower duplication of processes.

In December last year, Bloomberg reported that HSBC is looking to save at least $3bn with global operations restructuring.