Coop, a major Swedish grocery chain, experienced significant payment problems across many stores nationwide. The company's payment system, known as blipp, failed, preventing customers from using cards or mobile phones for transactions. The only available alternatives were cash or the mobile payment service Swish. A technical error at supplier Telia was behind the problems affecting approximately 30 of 43 Coop stores in Värmland, leading to long queues at locations like Coop City in central Karlstad during the afternoon. While some card payments were intermittently possible, the system remained slow and unreliable throughout the disruption.
Coop's press chief Carlos Cancino stated that the cause remains unclear, but the company is actively troubleshooting the issue, which involves a problem with a supplier.
Simultaneously, Swedbank has been grappling with serious operational disruptions since Monday, April 14, risking delays in important payments for thousands of customers. The bank confirmed that the fault lies not within its own systems but with an external party. Swedbank lacks a prognosis for when normal functionality will be restored.
Nordea customers continued reporting problems with bank services on Thursday, specifically with viewing accounts and balances in online banking. One Nordea customer claimed that hundreds of euros disappeared from their account on Tuesday morning and had not been returned. Nordea assured customers that the core problem has been fixed, but advised those experiencing viewing issues to clear their browser cache or try another browser. The bank also acknowledged that double charges occurred due to temporary disruptions in card payments on Tuesday, affecting some MobilePay transactions.
The cause is unclear, we are troubleshooting, and there is a problem with a supplier.
The banking issues extend beyond these institutions, with several banks and even the police affected by technical problems on Wednesday. Customers reported difficulties logging into ICA Banken, both through the app and via internet banking. There is no prognosis for when these problems can be resolved, and issues with making payments in stores have also been reported.
In the United Kingdom, thousands of bank customers struggled to access their accounts on Friday, with payment delays affecting customers of HSBC, Virgin Money, and Nationwide. The disruptions impacted online and mobile banking services, creating particular difficulties for customers expecting payday deposits, which often occur on the last day of the month. This marks the second consecutive month that users have faced delays on crucial payment days. IT failures also affected customers of TSB, Nationwide, First Direct, and Lloyds Banking Group – including its Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland brands – with many struggling to log into online accounts or experiencing payment delays.
Additional UK banking institutions faced separate outages, with Lloyds Bank and Halifax hit by an issue on Monday that left customers unable to receive payments. This followed a major Barclays outage that began on Friday and continued into the weekend, leaving many unable to access funds on payday. Lloyds reported that its systems had returned to normal by late Monday morning.
Political and regulatory responses have intensified in the UK, with MPs on the influential Treasury committee demanding answers from banks. The committee wrote to chief executives of lenders including Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, Nationwide, Barclays, and HSBC in early February and was due to publish their responses in the coming days. The committee is assessing its options and will consider next steps next week. UK Finance defended its members, stating that banks work hard to fix any IT problems affecting customers.
We apologize to customers 'for any inconvenience caused'.
NatWest reported fixing an issue that left customers unable to use the bank's mobile app, though some customers disputed the bank's claim that its web-based online banking service was working normally. Some people reported problems with NatWest's online service too.
These incidents represent the latest in a growing number of online banking outages in recent months. In May, major banks disclosed that 1.2 million people were affected by outages in the UK in 2024 alone. According to a March report, nine major banks and building societies have experienced approximately 803 hours of tech outages since 2023 – equivalent to 33 days of disrupted service.
International incidents mirror these trends, with at least seven Australian banks hit by a network outage at a third-party software supplier on February 15. London's only stock exchange experienced two major outages last year, while Japan's payment clearing network, Zengin-Net, malfunctioned in October, affecting customers at 11 banks. The Monetary Authority of Singapore punished banks after a spate of IT outages in 2023.
The exact causes behind Coop's payment system failure beyond the Telia supplier issue remain unclear, as do the factors preventing Swedbank from resolving its operational disruptions. Whether the banking outages in Sweden, the UK, and other countries share a common underlying cause or third-party provider is unknown.
Customer frustrations continue to mount as banks and retailers provide limited information about resolution timelines. The total number of customers affected across all reported incidents remains unconfirmed. Specific measures that banks and regulators are implementing to prevent future widespread outages have not been detailed publicly.