Bank of Scotland outages: history, compensation and how to check if Bank of Scotland is down

Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Bank of Scotland, told the Treasury Committee of 12 material IT events between 1 January 2023 and 7 February 2025, about 62.5 hours in all. Every Bank of Scotland incident listed here also hit Lloyds and Halifax. The longest was on 1 January 2020, when customers could not log in to the website or app for almost nine hours.

Is Bank of Scotland down right now?

This page is a record, not a live monitor, so it cannot tell you whether Bank of Scotland is working this minute. Bank of Scotland's own service status page is the place to check. Bank of Scotland lists planned work on its service status page, and posts on X as @BankofScotland.

During an outage your money stays in your account: outages stop you reaching it or paying with it, they do not remove it. The Financial Ombudsman Service lists scams that exploit outages among the complaints it sees, so be wary of calls or messages offering help during one.

Major Bank of Scotland outages

3 June 2026: Payments outage

On 3 June 2026 thousands of Bank of Scotland customers could not make payments or transfers, and the app and websites had problems, from about 11am until shortly before 3pm. Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Scottish Widows and MBNA customers were also hit. The Guardian reported that an IT update caused the problems. The bank said: "All our services are back up and running. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused, and if customers are still experiencing any issues, please leave it a few minutes and try again."

12 March 2026: App showed other customers' transactions

This was a data-exposure incident, not an outage. An overnight IT update to the mobile apps meant that between 3:28am and 8:08am on 12 March 2026 some Bank of Scotland app users could see other customers' current-account transactions. Lloyds and Halifax app users were also affected. Internet banking was not affected. 1.67 million of Lloyds Banking Group's 21.5 million mobile users logged in during that window; no Bank of Scotland-only figure was given. The group told the FCA, the PRA and the ICO.

20 October 2025: Amazon Web Services outage

On 20 October 2025 increased error rates in Amazon Web Services' US-EAST-1 region disrupted many websites and apps from about 8am UK time. Bank of Scotland was affected, as were Lloyds and Halifax, and customers had problems logging in to online and mobile banking. AWS reported significant signs of recovery by about 10.30am, but some sites had problems all day.

31 July 2025: Payday app crash

On 31 July 2025, a payday, the Bank of Scotland app crashed on opening for thousands of customers, with reports peaking at about 5am. Lloyds and Halifax customers were also hit. The press linked it to an app update on 30 July 2025, but the bank gave no cause. Bank of Scotland told customers it was trying to "fix" the issue. Lloyds Banking Group said: "Our app is up and running, although we know it's taking some customers a bit longer than usual to get logged on at the moment." Other services worked normally.

28 February 2025: Payday log-on failure

On payday, 28 February 2025, a slow infrastructure component disrupted log-on to internet banking and the app for Bank of Scotland customers. Lloyds, Halifax and MBNA customers were also hit. Lloyds Banking Group saw issues from 7:56am and confirmed stability by 10:30am. About 700,000 customers across the four brands had to try more than once to log on. The group received 714 complaints and paid about £16,000, an average of about £22 each.

3 February 2025: Incoming payments outage

On 3 February 2025 Bank of Scotland customers had problems receiving payments for about three hours, and one customer described missing Faster Payments. Lloyds and Halifax customers were also hit. The bank told customers who had sent payments: "They should not make the payment again." No cause was confirmed. Which? called for swift compensation.

19 July 2021: Log-in outage

On 19 July 2021 Bank of Scotland customers could not log in to the website or app from about 10am to about 3pm, about five hours, and telephone lines were swamped. Bank of Scotland posted a notice on its website. Lloyds and Halifax customers were also hit. Lloyds said: "Customers can now log in through their app and on internet banking as normal." No cause was given.

1 January 2020: New Year's Day log-in failure

On 1 January 2020, a bank holiday, Bank of Scotland customers could not log in to the website or app from about 4am until lunchtime, almost nine hours. Lloyds and Halifax customers were also hit, and the three brands put out identical statements. Telephone banking, card payments and cash machines were not affected. The group said it was an internal problem, not a cybersecurity one, which its IT team had fixed. All of its 13 million active online customers were potentially affected. There was no compensation scheme.

18 January 2019: Faster Payments failure

From about 9am on 18 January 2019 Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Halifax customers had problems with Faster Payments: payments sent did not arrive or balances were wrong, and the app crashed for some. Bank of Scotland issued a statement similar to Lloyds Banking Group's: "We are aware that some of our customers are experiencing problems with making Faster Payments. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible." Customers were told not to repeat payments. No cause was given.

Incidents Bank of Scotland reported to the FCA

Since August 2018 every bank or brand with at least 70,000 personal current accounts, or 15,000 business current accounts, must publish each quarter how many major operational or security incidents it reported to the FCA: the total, and how many hit telephone, mobile and internet banking, for the latest quarter and the latest 12 months.

What Bank of Scotland told Parliament

Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Bank of Scotland, told the Treasury Committee of 12 "material events" between 1 January 2023 and 7 February 2025. They included 2 full outages of online banking, both overnight and 1 hour 36 minutes in total, and 21 channel interruptions of about 60 hours 55 minutes: about 62.5 hours in all. One of the 12 was caused by the CrowdStrike global outage on 19 July 2024. Over the same period the group had 158 incidents reportable under the Payment Services Regulations. It paid about £160,000 in compensation and gave no split by brand.

PA reported that Lloyds Banking Group's letter said 1.5 million customer payments and 3.8 million log-on attempts were affected over the two years.

After the Chair wrote on 8 April 2025 about the 28 February 2025 payday disruption, Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Bank of Scotland, replied that a slow infrastructure component had disrupted log-on to internet banking and the app for the Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and MBNA brands. About 700,000 customers had to try more than once. It received 714 complaints and paid about £16,000.

Lloyds Banking Group disputed the word "outage" for 28 February 2025, because five million customers logged in successfully during the period. Its chief operating officer, Ron van Kemenade, said log-in infrastructure and monitoring had since been improved.

After the Chair wrote on 17 March 2026 about the 12 March 2026 app incident, Lloyds Banking Group replied that 1.67 million of its 21.5 million mobile users logged in between 3:28am and 8:08am, when some Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Halifax app users could see other customers' transactions. It had told the FCA, the PRA and the ICO.

In an update of 24 April 2026 Lloyds Banking Group told the Committee it had found no increase in fraud against the 446,915 customers affected by the 12 March 2026 incident.

In its final update Lloyds Banking Group said at most 446,915 customers who logged in during the 12 March 2026 incident were potentially affected, plus 80,508 joint-account holders. It found no evidence of fraud and no customer financial loss. The root cause was a software defect introduced in an overnight change.

Has Bank of Scotland paid compensation for outages?

Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Bank of Scotland, told the Treasury Committee it paid about £160,000 in compensation for IT failures between 1 January 2023 and 7 February 2025. It said customers "will not be left out of pocket", that it would "cover any charges they incur as a result of any IT issue such as late payment fees", and that "we may also pay compensation for the inconvenience caused". No Bank of Scotland-only figure was found.

For the 28 February 2025 log-on failure, which hit Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Halifax and MBNA, Lloyds Banking Group received 714 complaints and paid about £16,000, an average of about £22 each.

For the 12 March 2026 app incident across Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, the group paid £139,000 to 3,625 customers for distress and inconvenience by 24 March 2026. It identified no financial losses.

By 3 June 2026 the group had made more than £200,000 of goodwill payments for the 12 March 2026 app incident.

Lloyds Banking Group told the Committee it made goodwill payments of about £36,500 between 21 April and 31 August 2026 for the 12 March 2026 incident.

Has Bank of Scotland been fined for IT failures?

We found no FCA or PRA fine against Bank of Scotland plc or Lloyds Banking Group for an IT or operational-resilience failure.

Your rights if an outage costs you money

No law sets a fixed amount of compensation for a bank outage. What you are owed depends on what it cost you, and banks decide most cases themselves.

If a payment you made fails or goes wrong, your bank must refund it without undue delay and put your account back as it would have been, and it is liable for any charges and interest you have to pay as a result. It is not liable if the failure was caused by abnormal and unforeseeable circumstances beyond its control that could not have been avoided.

The Financial Ombudsman Service says that when it upholds an outage complaint it can tell the bank to refund extra costs caused by the outage, such as overdraft or late-payment charges, and to pay for distress and inconvenience. In one case it published, a bank offered £25 after a multi-day outage and the Ombudsman told it to pay a further £75.

Complain to the bank first. For a complaint about a payment it must reply in full within 15 business days, or 35 in exceptional cases; for other complaints within eight weeks. You then have six months from its final response to take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bank of Scotland down today?

This page records past outages and cannot show Bank of Scotland's status this minute. Bank of Scotland publishes live status at https://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/helpcentre/service-status.html. Bank of Scotland lists planned work on its service status page, and posts on X as @BankofScotland.

How often does Bank of Scotland have outages?

Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Bank of Scotland, told the Treasury Committee of 12 material IT events between 1 January 2023 and 7 February 2025, about 62.5 hours in all. Every Bank of Scotland incident listed here also hit Lloyds and Halifax. The longest was on 1 January 2020, when customers could not log in to the website or app for almost nine hours. In its latest published figures Bank of Scotland reported 22 major operational or security incidents to the FCA in the 12 months to 30 June 2026.

When was the last big Bank of Scotland outage?

3 June 2026: On 3 June 2026 thousands of Bank of Scotland customers could not make payments or transfers, and the app and websites had problems, from about 11am until shortly before 3pm. Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Scottish Widows and MBNA customers were also hit. The Guardian reported that an IT update caused the problems. The bank said: "All our services are back up and running. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused, and if customers are still experiencing any issues, please leave it a few minutes and try again."

Will Bank of Scotland compensate me for an outage?

Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Bank of Scotland, told the Treasury Committee it paid about £160,000 in compensation for IT failures between 1 January 2023 and 7 February 2025. It said customers "will not be left out of pocket", that it would "cover any charges they incur as a result of any IT issue such as late payment fees", and that "we may also pay compensation for the inconvenience caused". No Bank of Scotland-only figure was found. If a payment failed or went wrong, your bank must refund it and is liable for the charges and interest that result. Beyond that there is no fixed amount: complain to the bank, and if you are unhappy with its answer the Financial Ombudsman Service can order it to refund costs and pay for distress and inconvenience.

How do I complain about a Bank of Scotland outage?

Complain to the bank first and keep evidence of any costs, such as late-payment or overdraft charges. It has 15 business days to answer a complaint about a payment and eight weeks for others. You then have six months to take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free.

More: Bank of Scotland's credit rating and safety record, outage figures for every UK bank, and outage histories for Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Barclays, Chase UK, first direct, HSBC UK, Metro Bank, Monzo.