Some Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers were able to view other customers’ bank accounts when they logged into their app on Thursday morning.
Customers reported difficulties logging into their bank accounts and, in some cases, were able to view account details and transactions that did not belong to them.
One woman told the BBC she was able to view six different users’ accounts on the Bank of Scotland app, including some national insurance numbers, over a 20-minute period.
He was able to view benefit payments from the Department for Work and Pensions, which use recipients’ national insurance numbers as a payment reference. He also saw references to Waitrose transactions, despite not living near a store.
While a Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson apologized and said the incident had been resolved quickly, customers continued to report difficulties logging into their bank accounts.
In a Facebook post, consumer advocate Martin Lewis said people had been sending messages about “being shown other people’s transactions”.
In response, the MoneySavingExpert founder was inundated with nearly 2,000 comments from concerned banking customers. They reported being able to see other people’s names and transactions, and some said they feared they had been hacked.
In a post, Shirley Finlayson said that when she logged into the Bank of Scotland app she “saw quite a few transactions, one of which dated back to 2024, the payments going out showed full details of the person receiving them, name, bank account/sort code”.
Another user, Jill Steel, said that when she logged into her Lloyds app she was able to see the financial details of 30 people. “You can see the names, plus the corresponding account numbers and classification codes. NI numbers if they receive any benefits.”
Responding to customers on social media, Halifax said it was aware that some customers were “having trouble viewing transactions and balances at this time.”
A Lloyds spokesperson said: “We are sorry that some customers experienced an issue viewing transactions in the app for a short period this morning. The issue was quickly resolved and we are investigating what happened.”
Last year saw a series of IT failures affecting customers of TSB, Nationwide, First Direct and Lloyds, raising concerns among MPs as lenders continue to close branches in a wider push towards digital banking.
