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

Ulster Bank's worst outage was in June and July 2012, when a failed software change hit it longest of the three banks involved: its Northern Ireland online banking was not fully working until 9 July 2012, and about 600,000 Ulster Bank Ireland customers lost essential banking services over 28 days. The outages reported for Ulster Bank since 2018, on 21 September 2018 and 30 August 2024, were app and online banking problems shared with NatWest and RBS. Its figures are inside NatWest Group's report to the Treasury Committee of 13 outages and about 194 hours between January 2023 and January 2025.

Is Ulster Bank down right now?

This page is a record, not a live monitor, so it cannot tell you whether Ulster Bank is working this minute. Ulster Bank's own service status page is the place to check. Ulster Bank shows the status of its mobile app, Anytime Banking, payments, cards, branches, ATMs and telephone banking in Northern Ireland on its service status page. Ulster Bank Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, returned its banking licence on 27 June 2025, now trades as Ulydien DAC and has no 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 Ulster Bank outages

30 August 2024: App payments outage

On the morning of Friday 30 August 2024, NatWest and RBS customers had problems making payments in the mobile app, and PA reported that it was understood Ulster Bank customers also had disruption. A NatWest spokesman said: "Some customers experienced difficulty in making payments via the mobile app this morning. This has been resolved".

21 September 2018: Online and app login failure

On the morning of 21 September 2018, Ulster Bank customers had problems logging in to online and mobile banking, in an outage that also hit NatWest and RBS. An Ulster Bank spokesperson said it was resolved: "We would like to apologise to customers who experienced issues logging into their online and mobile banking accounts this morning".

18 June 2012: Batch scheduler failure, Northern Ireland

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 Ulster Bank systems were disrupted until 10 July 2012. By 21 June 2012 Ulster Bank's overnight processing was more than a day behind. In Northern Ireland its ATMs, telephone banking and card payments at tills were not fully working until 8 July 2012, its online banking and branch tellers until 9 July 2012, and its BankTrade service until 18 July 2012.

18 June 2012: Batch scheduler failure, Republic of Ireland

In the same 2012 failure, about 600,000 Ulster Bank Ireland customers in the Republic of Ireland were left without essential and basic banking services over 28 days in June and July 2012. Full account services were not restored until 16 July 2012.

Incidents Ulster Bank 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 Ulster Bank told Parliament

NatWest Group, which includes Ulster Bank and RBS, 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 Ulster Bank.

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

Has Ulster Bank paid compensation for outages?

NatWest Group, which includes Ulster Bank, 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.

In the Republic of Ireland, Ulster Bank Ireland paid about €59 million in redress for the 2012 failure, under a scheme overseen by the Central Bank of Ireland that started on 3 September 2012.

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

Has Ulster Bank been fined for IT failures?

The FCA fined Ulster Bank Ltd, Royal Bank of Scotland plc and National Westminster Bank plc £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.

The Central Bank of Ireland fined Ulster Bank Ireland Ltd €3.5 million and reprimanded it for IT and governance failings in the 2012 incident. At the time it was the highest fine the Central Bank had imposed.

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 Ulster Bank down today?

This page records past outages and cannot show Ulster Bank's status this minute. Ulster Bank publishes live status at https://www.ulsterbank.co.uk/help-and-support/service-status.html. Ulster Bank shows the status of its mobile app, Anytime Banking, payments, cards, branches, ATMs and telephone banking in Northern Ireland on its service status page. Ulster Bank Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, returned its banking licence on 27 June 2025, now trades as Ulydien DAC and has no status page.

How often does Ulster Bank have outages?

Ulster Bank's worst outage was in June and July 2012, when a failed software change hit it longest of the three banks involved: its Northern Ireland online banking was not fully working until 9 July 2012, and about 600,000 Ulster Bank Ireland customers lost essential banking services over 28 days. The outages reported for Ulster Bank since 2018, on 21 September 2018 and 30 August 2024, were app and online banking problems shared with NatWest and RBS. Its figures are inside NatWest Group's report to the Treasury Committee of 13 outages and about 194 hours between January 2023 and January 2025. In its latest published figures Ulster Bank reported 4 major operational or security incidents to the FCA in the 12 months to 30 June 2026.

When was the last big Ulster Bank outage?

30 August 2024: On the morning of Friday 30 August 2024, NatWest and RBS customers had problems making payments in the mobile app, and PA reported that it was understood Ulster Bank customers also had disruption. A NatWest spokesman said: "Some customers experienced difficulty in making payments via the mobile app this morning. This has been resolved".

Will Ulster Bank compensate me for an outage?

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