Customers of three UK banks report being able to see other people’s accounts on app | Banking

Some customers of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland were able to see the bank accounts of other customers 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 see the accounts of six different users on the Bank of Scotland app, including some national insurance numbers, over a 20-minute period.

She could see benefits payments from the Department of Work and Pensions, which use the national insurance numbers of recipients as a payment reference. She also saw references to Waitrose transactions, despite not living near a store.

While a Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson apologised and said the incident had been quickly resolved, customers were still reporting difficulties logging into their bank accounts.

In a Facebook post, consumer champion Martin Lewis said people had been messaging about “being shown other people’s transactions”.

In response, the founder of MoneySavingExpert was inundated with close to 2,000 comments from worried bank 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 going back to 2024, the payments going out showed all the details of the person receiving it, name, bank account/sort code”.

Another user, Jill Steel, said that when she logged into her Lloyds app she had been able to see the financial details of 30 people. “Can see names plus corresponding account numbers and sort codes. NI numbers if they’re receiving any benefits.”

Responding to customers on social media, Halifax said it was aware some customers were “having issues with viewing transactions and balances right now”.

A Lloyds spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that some customers experienced an issue viewing transactions in the app for a short time this morning. The issue was quickly resolved and we’re looking into what happened.”

Last year saw a series of IT failures that affected the customers of TSB, Nationwide, First Direct and Lloyds, prompting concerns among MPs as lenders continue to close branches in a wider push towards digital banking.