Thousands of Britons failed to receive their wages yesterday when a problem at Europe’s biggest bank HSBC prevented some of its business customers from making payments.

The glitch affected payments made by customers through Britain’s BACS system, which processes electronic payments.

“There has been a fault in the information used to process some payments from HSBC’s business customers. Approximately 275,000 payments have been affected, including payments to customers of other banks,” HSBC said.

Many Britons were scheduled to receive their monthly wages yesterday, with a large number planning getaways to make the most of the final public holiday in Britain before Christmas. Those affected by the glitch took to social media to vent their frustrations.

“Plans for the weekend out of the window. Thanks HSBC!,” said one.

Britain’s banks have been hit by a number of technology failures causing inconvenience for hundreds of thousands of customers.

State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has been the worst affected and promised to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in its computer systems after its latest glitch in June.

HSBC apologised and said it was taking immediate steps to ensure the payments were made as soon as possible. It said it would work with other banks to ensure customers do not lose out as a result.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.