Barclays online and mobile banking systems were down for two hours today, with the London-based bank’s clients were unable to access their accounts, the bank said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

During the outage, $1.9 trillion Barclays sent out three messages to clients via social media with updates urging clients to use the bank’s automated phone system and cards and cash machines.

At 8:17 a.m. ET (1:17 p.m. BST), the bank posted, “Thank you for bearing with us — there were some technical issues that we’ve fixed. You can now log into your app or online banking as normal.”

We’re sorry for the issues, thanks for bearing with us. pic.twitter.com/YmI6pRG3kz

— Barclays UK Help (@BarclaysUKHelp) October 17, 2023

The bank, which tracks its online performance, experienced no unexpected app outages in the second quarter.

Today’s outage comes less than a week before the bank’s planned app, online and telephone maintenance, set to take place Oct. 22, will pause its services for eight hours in the morning, according to the Barclays website.

Demand for online banking

Financial institutions are looking to ensure the strength of mobile and online banking platforms as demand for digital banking grows.

Read more: Combining physical and digital, a new era of bank branches

In fact, online banking is the most popular banking channel in North America, according to Forrester’s “The State of Digital Banking 2023” report from March. The report surveyed 15,000 online adult banking consumers from North America and Europe and found that 71% of technology professionals and FIs are prioritizing digitalization.

Banks invested in their digital platforms — including $1.7 trillion Lloyds Bank and $890 billion NatWest — as mobile banking usership grew in the second quarter.

“Most of our customers are shifting to mobile and online banking,” a NatWest spokesperson previously told Bank Automation News.