Natwest online banking: Is the Natwest mobile app down?
Thousands of people have reported that an online banking service has gone down.
Customers of NatWest say that they can’t log into their account.
NatWest reassured customers the issue stemmed from an update it made to the app on Thursday, after some customers raised concerns over recent major cyber hacks affecting Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.
It’s the latest occasion when banking apps have gone down on a Friday, after several problems across the industry earlier in the year. And Barclays app crashed for most of a weekend at beginning of February.
Data gathered by the Treasury Committee in March found there had been more than 33 days’ worth of unplanned tech and system outages in the last two years for nine of the UK’s biggest banks and building societies.
NatWest had 13 “material” incidents between 2023 and 2025, paying nearly £350,000 in compensation for customers who complained, it told the committee.
Barclays said it could pay up to £12.5 million in compensation for millions of customers affected over the period. Common reasons given for the incidents include problems with third-party suppliers, disruption caused when systems were changed, and internal software malfunctions.
The website Downdetector.com has registered more than 3,000 reports today, and many people have taken to social media to point out the problems.
On X a Natwest spokeswoman said she appreciated it was “far from ideal” and added: “We’re aware of an issue affecting our mobile app. Our technical team is working to resolve it as quickly as possible. If you are unable to log into online banking you can call our team on ☎️ UK: 03457 888 444, the team will be able to help.”
At the end of February Lloyds, Nationwide, First Direct, TSB, Barclays, Bank of Scotland all had issues on a Friday, and at the time fintech expert Chris Skinner told the PA news agency in the wake of those outages that banks were finding it “too hard to keep up” with fast-moving technology.
“I think the world is spinning so fast with technology that the challenge we have is no-one’s keeping up, particularly regulators and lawmakers,” he said.
“So the regulators and lawmakers need to have people who do better due diligence. I think there’s an issue here with reliability, service and resilience, and that’s the accountability of the people who are organising the structures, both from within the business, and those who look over the business in terms of the regulators. At the moment, I think both are probably finding it too hard to keep up.”
He added the vast array of modern tech systems needed to operate in the banking world today mean firms have “such a smorgasbord of things they have to work with”, the “competence of keeping up with these changes is really challenging every bank”.
Mr Skinner, who also runs industry blog The Finanser, said the flurry of outages on Fridays – and sometimes close to paydays – is likely due to banks planning software updates for weekends as it tends to be a quieter time to carry out such work.