Coop has major payment problems in many stores across Sweden, with its payment system, known as blipp, not working and preventing payments with cards or mobile phones, according to officials. The only available payment alternatives at Coop are cash or Swish, as confirmed by the company. Long queues formed at Coop City in central Karlstad in the afternoon, and it was possible to pay with some cards sometimes, but the whole system was slow, officials reported.
Conflicting information has emerged about the technical cause and scope of Coop's outage. Karolina Nilsson, member and communications manager for Coop Värmland, attributed the problems to a technical error at supplier Telia, affecting about 30 of 43 Coop stores in Värmland. However, Coop's press chief Carlos Cancino said the cause is unclear, they are troubleshooting, and there is a problem with a supplier, leaving the exact technical cause beyond Telia unresolved.
The immediate impact on customers included significant inconvenience, with long queues and slow, unreliable payments at Coop. Officials noted that while some card payments were intermittently possible, the system's overall slowness exacerbated delays.
Separately, Nordea customers are reporting problems with bank services on Thursday, including issues viewing accounts and balances in online banking, according to multiple reports. A Nordea customer reported that hundreds of euros disappeared from their account on Tuesday morning and have not been returned, though Nordea assures that the core problem has been fixed. Nordea advises customers to clear browser cache or try another browser to resolve viewing issues in online banking, but problems persist despite the bank announcing on Wednesday afternoon that issues with viewing accounts and balances were over, according to multiple reports. Nordea stated on Wednesday that for some customers, account and card transactions are not visible in online banking but are in mobile banking, indicating ongoing inconsistencies.
Nordea's troubleshooting advice has not fully resolved transaction visibility problems, with the bank acknowledging that most payments have been handled, but a small part require manual processing, which takes longer, according to the bank. There have been separate problems with payments being credited to recipients' accounts at Nordea, as reported by multiple sources. Some Nordea customers were charged twice for MobilePay payments on Wednesday, though Nordea clarifies that there were no problems with MobilePay payments on Wednesday, but on Tuesday there were temporary interruptions in card payments causing double reservations for some customers, including MobilePay payments. Nordea did not answer what the technical disruption was about, according to multiple reports, leaving the root cause unclear.
I have almost no food at home and had to borrow money from my son for medicine and milk.
Swedbank has had network problems since Monday, affecting critical payments like housing allowances, according to multiple reports. Eva Klang, 61, from Torshälla, is affected by Swedbank's disruptions, as her housing allowance of 2,900 kronor did not arrive as expected on Tuesday. Swedbank's press chief Hannes Mård says they have ongoing disruptions and are still working on resolving them, and he apologizes for Eva Klang's situation, saying it sounds very unfortunate.
Broader Swedish banking issues include Ica-banken login problems and wider payment failures beyond Coop. Several banks were reportedly affected by technical problems on Wednesday, as was the police, according to multiple reports. There are currently problems logging into Ica-banken, in the app and via internet banking, with no prognosis for when the problem can be resolved, as indicated by multiple sources. There are also problems with paying in stores beyond Coop, though the full extent and customer impact in Sweden remain unknown.
In the UK, payment delays affected customers of HSBC, Virgin Money, and Nationwide, disrupting online and mobile banking services, according to research. Outages reportedly affected more than 7,000 customers in the UK. Thousands of UK bank customers struggled to access accounts on Friday, affecting TSB, Nationwide, First Direct, and Lloyds Banking Group brands, according to research.
The timing and impact of UK outages were worsened by payday and recurring monthly issues. Issues were worsened for customers ready for payday, often on the last day of the month, and most services were restored by Friday afternoon in the UK, according to research. This is the second month in a row with delays on crucial payment days in the UK; in January, a Barclays IT glitch locked some customers out for almost 24 hours on HMRC's deadline day, as reported by research.
Political and regulatory response in the UK has intensified, with MPs on the Treasury committee demanding answers from banks and writing to chief executives in early February, with responses due to be published soon, according to research. Friday's outages raised further concerns among MPs, with the Treasury committee assessing options for next steps, though specific preventive measures remain undetermined.
I live on sickness allowance and depend on timely payments, with no large buffers for unexpected events.
These outages occur amid a push towards digital banking and branch closures, with UK branches falling from roughly 10,565 in 2014 to 6,870 by 2024, according to research. Repeated IT failures highlight the importance of face-to-face and manual banking services, and the FCA requires banks to hold off on branch closures until they guarantee cash access won't be affected, as per research. UK Finance defended its members, saying banks invest heavily in systems and work to fix IT problems.
Recent UK bank-specific outages include incidents at Lloyds, Halifax, Barclays, and NatWest. On Monday, Lloyds Bank and Halifax were hit by an issue leaving customers unable to receive payments, following a major Barclays outage that began Friday and continued into the weekend, according to research. Lloyds said its systems returned to normal by late morning. NatWest fixed an issue that left customers unable to use its mobile app, with some unable to access accounts, and apologised for inconvenience, saying web-based online banking was working normally, but some customers disputed this, according to research.
Customer reactions included complaints on social media, with examples including inability to shop or transfer money, and some reported problems with NatWest's online service too, such as error messages when making payments, according to research. Disputed claims about service restoration emerged, with NatWest's assertion of normal web banking challenged by customers.
Historical and global context shows the scale of outages in the UK and similar incidents worldwide. In May, major banks disclosed that 1.2 million people were affected by outages in the UK in 2024, and according to a March report, nine major banks and building societies had around 803 hours (33 days) of tech outages since 2023, as per research. At least seven Australian banks were 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, Zengin-Net, Japan's payment clearing network, malfunctioned in October, affecting customers at 11 banks, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore punished banks after a spate of IT outages in 2023, according to research.
Key unknowns include the exact technical cause of Coop's payment system failure beyond the supplier Telia, when payment system issues at Coop, Swedbank, Nordea, and Ica-banken will be fully resolved, how many customers in Sweden are affected by the banking and payment system outages and the total financial impact, whether the outages in Sweden and the UK are related or part of a broader, coordinated technical failure, and what specific measures banks and regulators are taking to prevent future widespread IT outages. The implications for digital banking reliability and customer trust remain significant as authorities and institutions grapple with these challenges.