Nationwide Building Society Customers Hampered by Payment Delays

British lender Nationwide Building Society said Tuesday (Dec. 21) that inbound and outgoing payments have been delayed all day, and there’s no sign of when the problems will be resolved, BBC News reported.

The U.K.’s largest building society has apologized to those who are affected and urged their customers not to try to resend payments that are stuck, according to the report.

“Unfortunately, there is currently a delay on outbound payments reaching people’s accounts as well as inbound payments reaching Nationwide current accounts,” a Nationwide spokesman said, per the report. “We are working hard to resolve the issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused. All other services are working normally, and members can continue to use their cards to pay for goods and services, access the internet bank and banking app and withdraw cash from ATMs.”

The report stated that one customer wrote on Twitter: “What is going on? Not one person can give a straight answer! It’s Christmas in three days and you can’t tell people when they will have their money. Absolute shambles!”

Some Nationwide customers have also said they’ve suffered long waits to contact the bank on the phone, according to the report.

“There is no need for people to resend payments and these will be processed as soon as possible,” a Nationwide spokesman said, per the report.

In April 2020, Nationwide scrapped its plan to begin a business banking venture, saying the ongoing spread of the coronavirus had made it untenable.

Read more: Nationwide Says Business Banking Plans No Longer Viable

Nationwide first considered entering the business banking field in 2019, when it got a 50-million-pound (about $66.3 million) grant from the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) to help level the playing field for smaller banks vying against multinational financial institutions.

Nationwide invested about 70 million pounds (about $93 million) in its business banking plans before scrapping the idea.