NatWest has apologised to customers after its online banking and mobile app services went down during the Black Friday sales.

Intermittent issues began affecting access to its services just after 9am on Friday morning.

The bank said the technical problems were resoled by 5.30pm.

Although there was no impact to debit cards, credit cards, ATMs, telephone and branch banking services, those affected complained they were unable to access their money online.

Friday was payday for many customers - and the outage left some unable to pay their bills and make the most out of Black Friday offers.


Some said money they had transferred between accounts appeared to have vanished.

The bank's online service for business finances, Bankline, was also down.

Brandon Leigh, from south Manchester, said the NatWest failure impacted his business.

Mr Leigh runs a first-aid training business and planned to buy 36 mannequins and equipment at a 20% Black Friday discount.

The items would usually retail for a total of £5,000 - but the businessman was unable to benefit from the big saving because he couldn't pay his supplier.

One Twitter user, named only as Siobhan, wrote: "Well that's just great, pay day, Black Friday and #natwest online is down. @NatWest_Help #BlackFridaySale #timetochangebanks."

A Twitter user called Luce wrote: "Black Friday and NatWest mobile banking is down. Never known frustration like it."

Bolaji Lawal-Sofoluwe said: "I am trying to pay a bill to get goods cleared. NatWest is becoming so problematic."

Another wrote: "Transferred my pay day money over to two different accounts and now I have nothing."

Image: The outage has coincided with the Black Friday sales

Philippa Smith wrote on Twitter: "Supposed to sell our flat and buy a house today, our solicitor banks with NatWest.

"When will this be sorted? Packed up and nowhere to go."

Another said: "I'm getting statements my #natwest transfers have gone in but no actual money on my bank balance."

The RBS Group said in a statement: "All our services are now operating as normal. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused."

Research from Which? released earlier this week found the banking industry suffers around five IT failures each week typically, shutting millions of customers out of accounts and making payments.

Which? found that over the past year, major UK banks suffered 265 IT shutdowns between them that prevented customers from making payments.

Black Friday is a sales event where UK retailers offer reduced prices and deals on a range of products.

The idea originated in the US.