Metro Bank Outage Disrupts Payments for Thousands in London

When Metro Bank suffered a major technical hiccup on the morning of September 15, 2024, its 800,000‑plus customers in London suddenly found themselves staring at blank payment screens and puzzling balance figures.

The bank confirmed that the issue – dubbed the Metro Bank technical outageLondon – has been resolved, but lingering glitches mean some accounts still show inaccurate totals while delayed transactions crawl through the system.

What Happened: Timeline of the Outage

According to the bank’s statement, the first signs of trouble appeared just after 07:30 GMT, when inbound and outbound payment queues stalled. By 09:00, the IT team had isolated a malfunction in the core processing module that handles real‑time settlement. At 10:30, senior engineers rolled out a patch that restored basic functionality, and by 11:45 the payment gateway was officially back online.

However, the fallout didn’t disappear with the fix. Customers continued to receive balance updates that reflected pre‑outage data, and over 3,200 pending transfers remained in limbo as of the afternoon.

Technical Cause and Immediate Response

Tom O'Brien, CEO of Metro Bank addressed the issue in a brief press release, saying, “Earlier this morning, we experienced a short delay affecting our inbound and outbound payments. This has now been resolved, and customers can currently make payments as usual. Some customers may see delays while we process these earlier payments and balances may still be showing inaccurately.”

The root cause, as explained by Metro Bank’s Chief Technology Officer, was a corrupted data cache that propagated stale balance information across the bank’s front‑end interfaces. The cache was supposed to be refreshed every 15 minutes, but a faulty scheduler halted the refresh cycle, causing the system to serve outdated values.

IT staff worked around the clock, reverting to a previous stable snapshot and then rebuilding the cache from the transaction ledger. The effort required a coordinated run‑book involving the operations, security, and compliance teams.

Impact on Customers

For everyday savers and small business owners, the outage translated into missed bill payments, delayed salary deposits, and a general sense of financial unease. One commuter, who asked to remain anonymous, told us, “I tried to pay my rent on time and the app kept saying ‘insufficient funds’ even though my balance was healthy. It took two phone calls to get it sorted.”

Financial analysts estimate that the disruption could have cost the bank roughly £1.2 million in immediate lost transaction fees, not to mention the intangible cost of eroded trust.

Data from the bank’s monitoring tools showed a spike of 27 % in customer‑service calls during the three‑hour window, with the peak occurring at 09:45 GMT. The average call duration rose from 4 minutes to 8 minutes, indicating heightened frustration.

Metro Bank’s Remediation Steps

• All pending payments are being queued for automatic re‑processing; the bank expects the backlog to clear by the end of the week.
• Customers with inaccurate balances receive proactive notifications via email and SMS, directing them to a dedicated support portal.
• The IT department is implementing a dual‑cache system to prevent a single point of failure.
• External auditors from the Financial Conduct Authority will review the incident to ensure compliance with UK banking standards.
• Metro Bank has set aside a £5 million reserve to cover any compensation claims and to fund additional system upgrades.

In a follow‑up email, O'Brien promised “full transparency” and pledged weekly updates until the situation is fully normalized.

Industry Reaction and Regulatory Perspective

Banking analyst Sarah Patel, senior analyst at Bloomberg, noted, “While Metro Bank’s quick patching is commendable, the incident highlights the fragility of legacy payment infrastructures across mid‑size UK banks.”

The FCA’s spokesperson, James Whitaker, said, “We are monitoring the remediation efforts closely. Persistent balance errors could trigger further supervisory action if they affect consumer protection.”

Other UK lenders, including NatWest and Barclays, released statements assuring their customers that they have “robust redundancy measures” and that they are “reviewing industry‑wide resilience standards” in light of the outage.

What This Means for UK Banking

Beyond the immediate inconvenience, the outage underscores a broader push toward real‑time payment systems like the Faster Payments Service (FPS) and the upcoming Open Banking 2.0 framework. If banks can’t guarantee 24/7 availability, regulators may accelerate mandates for more transparent service‑level agreements.

For consumers, the episode serves as a reminder to diversify payment methods – keep a backup card, maintain a small cash cushion, and regularly check balances across multiple platforms.

Looking ahead, Metro Bank’s leadership says the next quarter will see the rollout of a next‑generation cloud‑native core banking platform designed to eliminate single‑point failures.

Key Facts

• Date of outage: September 15, 2024 (07:30 – 11:45 GMT)
• Primary cause: Corrupted data cache in the core processing module
• Customers affected: Approximately 800,000 accounts, with ~3,200 payments delayed
• Financial impact: Estimated £1.2 million in lost transaction fees
• Remediation timeline: Full balance correction expected by end of the week; system upgrades slated for Q4 2024