NatWest outages: history, compensation and how to check if NatWest is down

NatWest Group, which includes RBS and Ulster Bank, told the Treasury Committee of 13 outages that materially affected customers between January 2023 and January 2025, about 194 hours in all. Its worst was in June 2012, when a failed software change left NatWest's online and telephone banking not fully working until 1 July 2012 and led to fines of £42 million from the FCA and £14 million from the PRA. More recent outages, such as on 28 May 2024 and 6 June 2025, stopped app or online banking logins for a few hours.

Is NatWest down right now?

This page is a record, not a live monitor, so it cannot tell you whether NatWest is working this minute. NatWest's own service status page is the place to check. NatWest shows the status of its mobile app, online banking, payments, cards, branches, ATMs and telephone banking on its service status page, which also lists planned maintenance. It posts updates on X as @NatWest_Help.

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 NatWest outages

14 April 2026: Savings Pots glitch

Some NatWest customers' Pots top-ups and withdrawals were delayed, so their money appeared to disappear. NatWest blamed a "technical fault" and said fewer than 500 customers were affected. It said "no customers were ultimately left out of pocket". The problem was resolved on 14 April 2026. RBS and Ulster Bank customers were not affected.

6 June 2025: App update failure

From shortly after 9am on Friday 6 June 2025, NatWest customers had problems logging in to the mobile app and making payments in it for several hours. NatWest said an app update made on Thursday 5 June caused the problems. Card payments, branches, online banking and telephone banking were not affected. No compensation was announced. Reports named only NatWest.

30 August 2024: App payments outage

On the morning of Friday 30 August 2024, the last working day of the month, NatWest customers had problems making payments and transfers in the mobile app, and some were logged out with a "cannot establish a connection" error. RBS customers were hit too, and PA reported that Ulster Bank customers were understood to have been affected. A NatWest spokesman said: "Some customers experienced difficulty in making payments via the mobile app this morning. This has been resolved".

28 May 2024: App and online banking login failure

From about 5.40am to 9.30am on Tuesday 28 May 2024, NatWest retail and business customers could not log in to the mobile app or online banking. Cards, ATMs, branches and telephone banking still worked. NatWest apologised, and no compensation was announced. Reports named only NatWest.

21 September 2023: Cash deposit machine delay

Cash paid in at NatWest cash deposit machines did not show in a small number of accounts on time. NatWest blamed an "ongoing incident with our cash deposit machines". It said no customer would be left out of pocket and customers should not face overdraft charges.

29 November 2019: Black Friday outage

On Black Friday, 29 November 2019, which was also payday, NatWest and RBS customers had intermittent problems with online banking, the mobile app and the Bankline business service. NatWest said on X: "Our Online Banking, mobile app and Bankline are currently facing intermittent problems". Customers' posts suggested the problems lasted at least about 2 hours.

27 August 2019: Website outage

On 27 August 2019, the first working day after the bank holiday, the natwest.com and rbs.co.uk websites returned "502 Bad Gateway" errors from at least 9:25am for at least 6 hours. The separate online banking login sites and the app were reported to be still working. RBS was hit as well as NatWest.

29 April 2019: Online banking outage

From about 5am to just after 9am on Monday 29 April 2019, some NatWest customers could not log in to online banking, make payments or see their balances, and some had problems with the app. NatWest said: "A small number of customers may have experienced problems".

21 September 2018: Online and app login failure

From about 5am on Friday 21 September 2018, NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank customers could not log in to online or mobile banking. It was fixed by about 10am to 10.30am. Telephone banking, ATMs and branches still worked. The bank did not give a cause. A spokesperson said: "no customer will be left out of pocket as result of this".

18 June 2012: Batch scheduler failure

On 17 June 2012 an upgrade to the batch scheduler software that processes overnight account updates was backed out without testing, and the previous version was not compatible. RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank were all hit. NatWest's ATMs, branch teller updates, Bankline Direct and debit card authorisations were not fully working until 28 June 2012. Its online banking and telephone banking were not fully working until 1 July 2012, and its BankTrade service until 18 July 2012.

Incidents NatWest 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 NatWest told Parliament

NatWest Group, which includes RBS and Ulster Bank, told the Treasury Committee of 13 incidents between January 2023 and January 2025 in which IT outages materially affected customers, about 194 hours in all. About 142 hours of that was one incident affecting the payments and reporting channel used by large business customers. It also reported 44 further incidents reportable under the Payment Services Regulations. It paid about £348,000 across about 1,855 complaints.

City AM reported that NatWest Group had the most outage time of the nine banks the Committee asked, at 194 hours across 13 incidents.

After the 21 September 2018 outage, Treasury Committee chair Nicky Morgan wrote to RBS Group chief executive Ross McEwan asking what went wrong and how customers would be compensated.

The chief executive's reply was published by the Committee on 23 November 2018 as part of its inquiry into IT failures in the financial services sector.

Has NatWest paid compensation for outages?

NatWest Group told the Treasury Committee it paid about £348,000 for IT outages between January 2023 and January 2025, across about 1,855 complaints.

After the June 2012 failure, RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank paid about £70.3 million in redress to UK customers and £460,000 to people who were not customers. They received almost 70,000 complaints from customers, including Ulster Bank customers in the Republic of Ireland, and 1,200 from non-customers.

After the 21 September 2018 outage, a spokesperson said: "no customer will be left out of pocket as result of this".

After the September 2023 cash deposit machine delay, NatWest said no customer would be left out of pocket and customers should not face overdraft charges.

Has NatWest been fined for IT failures?

The FCA fined Royal Bank of Scotland plc, National Westminster Bank plc and Ulster Bank Ltd £42 million, after a 30% discount for settling early. The fine was for breaching its Principle 3 on systems and controls between 1 August 2010 and 10 July 2012.

The FCA said the fine was for the June 2012 IT failures, which affected over 6.5 million UK customers for several weeks. The cause was a software compatibility problem, and the underlying cause was the banks' failure to put adequate IT risk systems and controls in place. It was the first joint enforcement action by the FCA and the PRA.

The PRA fined the same three banks £14 million, which was £20 million before a 30% discount. It was the PRA's first ever financial penalty.

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 NatWest down today?

This page records past outages and cannot show NatWest's status this minute. NatWest publishes live status at https://www.natwest.com/service-status.html. NatWest shows the status of its mobile app, online banking, payments, cards, branches, ATMs and telephone banking on its service status page, which also lists planned maintenance. It posts updates on X as @NatWest_Help.

How often does NatWest have outages?

NatWest Group, which includes RBS and Ulster Bank, told the Treasury Committee of 13 outages that materially affected customers between January 2023 and January 2025, about 194 hours in all. Its worst was in June 2012, when a failed software change left NatWest's online and telephone banking not fully working until 1 July 2012 and led to fines of £42 million from the FCA and £14 million from the PRA. More recent outages, such as on 28 May 2024 and 6 June 2025, stopped app or online banking logins for a few hours. In its latest published figures NatWest reported 13 major operational or security incidents to the FCA in the 12 months to 30 June 2026.

When was the last big NatWest outage?

14 April 2026: Some NatWest customers' Pots top-ups and withdrawals were delayed, so their money appeared to disappear. NatWest blamed a "technical fault" and said fewer than 500 customers were affected. It said "no customers were ultimately left out of pocket". The problem was resolved on 14 April 2026. RBS and Ulster Bank customers were not affected.

Will NatWest compensate me for an outage?

NatWest Group told the Treasury Committee it paid about £348,000 for IT outages between January 2023 and January 2025, across about 1,855 complaints. 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 NatWest 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: NatWest's credit rating and safety record, outage figures for every UK bank, and outage histories for RBS, Ulster Bank, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Chase UK, first direct, Halifax, HSBC UK.