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

RBS is part of NatWest Group, which told the Treasury Committee of 13 outages that materially affected customers between January 2023 and January 2025, about 194 hours in all, without a figure for RBS alone. RBS's worst outage was in June 2012, when a failed software change left its online and telephone banking not fully working until 25 June 2012 and its BankTrade service until 18 July 2012. Since 2018, RBS customers were hit alongside NatWest customers on 21 September 2018, 27 August 2019, 29 November 2019 and 30 August 2024.

Is RBS down right now?

This page is a record, not a live monitor, so it cannot tell you whether RBS is working this minute. RBS's own service status page is the place to check. RBS shows the status of its mobile app, digital banking, payments, cards, branches, ATMs and telephone banking on its service status page.

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 RBS outages

30 August 2024: App payments outage

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

29 November 2019: Black Friday outage

On Black Friday, 29 November 2019, which was also payday, RBS and NatWest 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", and RBS repeated the statement on its own social media account.

27 August 2019: Website outage

On 27 August 2019, the first working day after the bank holiday, the rbs.co.uk and natwest.com websites returned "502 Bad Gateway" errors from at least 9:25am for at least 6 hours. Which? could not open rbs.com at 11:47am. The separate online banking login sites and the app were reported to be still working.

21 September 2018: Online and app login failure

From about 5am on Friday 21 September 2018, RBS, NatWest 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, and most RBS and NatWest systems were disrupted until 26 June 2012. RBS's online banking and telephone banking were not fully working until 25 June 2012. Its ATMs, Bankline Direct and card payments at tills were not fully working until 27 June 2012, and its BankTrade service until 18 July 2012.

Incidents RBS 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 RBS 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. It did not give separate figures for RBS.

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 RBS paid compensation for outages?

NatWest Group, which includes RBS, 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 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".

Has RBS 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 RBS down today?

This page records past outages and cannot show RBS's status this minute. RBS publishes live status at https://www.rbs.co.uk/service-status.html. RBS shows the status of its mobile app, digital banking, payments, cards, branches, ATMs and telephone banking on its service status page.

How often does RBS have outages?

RBS is part of NatWest Group, which told the Treasury Committee of 13 outages that materially affected customers between January 2023 and January 2025, about 194 hours in all, without a figure for RBS alone. RBS's worst outage was in June 2012, when a failed software change left its online and telephone banking not fully working until 25 June 2012 and its BankTrade service until 18 July 2012. Since 2018, RBS customers were hit alongside NatWest customers on 21 September 2018, 27 August 2019, 29 November 2019 and 30 August 2024. In its latest published figures RBS reported 10 major operational or security incidents to the FCA in the 12 months to 30 June 2026.

When was the last big RBS outage?

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

Will RBS compensate me for an outage?

NatWest Group, which includes RBS, 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 RBS 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: RBS's credit rating and safety record, outage figures for every UK bank, and outage histories for NatWest, Ulster Bank, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Chase UK, first direct, Halifax, HSBC UK.