On Friday 31 January 2025, Barclays customers experienced intermittent errors following significant IT problems that affected the bank’s app and online banking.

This meant that millions of customers were unable to complete their day-to-day transactions, causing a wide range of issues, from not being able to complete their tax returns by the deadline of the 31 January to not being able to complete a house sale.

These issues persisted over several days and were said to have hit Barclays customers both financially and emotionally. The knock-on effects of the outage are still ongoing and a spokesperson for Barclays have reassured their customers that "[they] will ensure that no impacted customer is left out of pocket.”[1]

Considering the cost of fees and compensation, the financial repercussions of this incident for Barclays will be substantial. As a business of their size and financial power, they will have rigorous plans and insurances in place to support with such incidents and therefore, can continue to thrive despite this. Unfortunately, many smaller businesses won’t be in the same position. How would your business move forward in a similar position?

The role of cyber insurance for businesses experiencing tech outages

While many of us are already aware that cyber insurance covers businesses for malicious cyber-attacks, did you know that some policies may also provide protection in the event of tech outages that weren’t directly caused by cybercrime or malicious activity? This includes those taking place on a Software as a Service (SaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider system.

To find out more about how cyber insurance can protect your business beyond malicious cybercrime, get in touch with our cyber team on 0330 029 5231.

What to do if you have been affected

If you have been affected by the outage, start off by gathering your evidence to demonstrate how the incident affected you, both financially and personally. The bank has confirmed they will offer compensation on top of refunding fees incurred for late payments, where applicable, so it’s important to demonstrate the impact it has had on you. When you are ready, contact Barclays by phone on 0345 600 2323 or directly through your banking app.

Protect your business

If you’re concerned about cyber-attacks and the repercussions of tech outages for your business, we’d love to talk to you about our cyber insurance offering. This cover will mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks and outages for your business, giving you the peace of mind that if something were to happen, you would be covered. This includes post-incident support in areas such as extortion, business interruption, liability and more. Want to know more? Get in touch on 0330 678 1221, email TIB@towergate.co.uk or to visit our cyber page.

Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.

Sources

bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y7dpdje6xo - Barclays customers face second day of issues after IT outage

bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9qzg92g72o - Barclays working to update account balances after tech outage

[1] moneysavingexpert.com/news/2025/02/barclays-payment-delays-refund-compensation