Customers' dissatisfaction was exacerbated by the fact that the glitch took place on the last Friday of the month and before the Halloween weekend, leaving them unable to access their salaries.

The problems were first detected at around 8.30am by HSBC customers unable to access their funds, who then took to social media to report the problem. 

The bank claimed that the problem had been fixed by 9.30am and that the service was up and running again, however some of its customers disputed the claim and were reportedly still unable to access either the online banking site or the money in their account.

According to the Daily Mail, the problem was the result of a scheduled upgrade to the personal internet banking service which suffered technical problems and did not complete properly. 

It is not the first time this year that HSBC has suffered problems with its internet banking service. On January 29th, a cyber attack left its customers unable to access their online accounts, also on the last Friday of the month. While back in August 2015, HSBC customers found themselves locked out of their accounts, once more on the last Friday of the month and before a bank holiday weekend.