HSBC crash leaves customers cash-strapped

An HSBC network crash left thousands of customers without cash and unable to use their debit and credit cards at the weekend.

The outage meant HSBC and First Direct customers were faced with service messages when trying to take out cash at ATMs or they had their cards declined when trying to pay in shops or restaurants.

The system went down between 12:00(BST) and 15:00(BST) on Sunday afternoon and affected thousands of customers, mainly in the South of England, although other parts of the country, including Yorkshire, were also affected.

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A spokesman for HSBC apologised to customers for the outage and said the problem has now been fixed.

He said: "We had some issues which meant the card reader in the ATM or in the device in the shop were unable to communicate with our system and approve transactions. It was our fault."

The spokesman said the bank is currently investigating the cause of the glitch and why it only affected certain areas of the country.