Barclays and Santander top highest customer exodus after outages
Barclays and Santander recorded the highest net losses of current account switches in the second quarter of the year after outages disrupted thousands of customers’ online banking.
Over 22,000 users switched from Barclays in the three months to June 2025, with just under 4,000 joining, marking a net loss of over 18,000. Santander recorded a net loss of 23,015.
The figures – from current account switching service Pay.UK – come after both banks suffered major outages in the beginning of the year.
Barclays wrote in a letter to the Treasury Committee earlier this year that it expects to pay up to £7.5m in compensation to customers after a three-day outage.
Figures from the committee revealed Brits were hit with almost 33 days worth of unplanned tech and system outages in the last two years.
Santander also apologised for a disruption in March after a mobile and telephone service outage left users unable to make payments.
Lloyds – which marked a net loss of over nine thousand customers – was among the thousands of websites caught in the internet blackout after an issue with Amazon’s web hosting services earlier this month.
Online and mobile app banking was ranked the top reason by users for switching at 44 per cent.
The UK’s banking giants have ramped up efforts to beef up their tech in the last year with Natwest partnering with OpenAI in a move the bank said would “enhance customer experience”.
Lloyds has also also used its new customer AI knowledge hub in a bid to save customer service “thousands of hours”.
Nationwide extends winning streak
Building society Nationwide triumphed above its peers after gaining a net 54,347 customers.
The Co-op Bank, which made the second highest net gains, scored just over 9,000.
Nationwide has sweetened its joining perks in recent years but also ramped up efforts to maintain customers.
In 2024, the mutual handed customers £2.8bn through a combination of reward schemes that offered better rates on savings and loans.
During the period covered by the latest switching data, the building society issued a £50m payment to over 12 million members following its takeover of Virgin Money.
The acquisition helped the mutual bank £2.3bn and created the UK’s second-largest retail bank.
However, Nationwide’s top boss has come under fire for a pay packet that rivals the big banks.
Debbie Crosbie’s package – subsequent to her meeting targets – nears £7bn marking a 43 per cent raise.
But the move faced opposition after members were not given a vote.
The figure sits amongst Natwest chief Paul Thwaite’s £7.8m packet, Lloyds boss Charlie Nunn’s £5.6m and Barclays’ Venkat’s £10.5m.
Susan Allen, who heads up Yorkshire Building Society, receives around £1.6m and Steve Hughes at Coventry Building Society £1.2m.
Nationwide is estimated to have over 16m members, whilst Yorkshire Building Society and Coventry Building Society have around 3m and 1.8m respectively.