• Anthony Walton, CEO at Iliad Solutions


• 21.03.2025 10:15 am
#BankingOutages #FintechSolutions

The current banking disruption caused by outages is affecting millions of customers in the UK and around the world. How can banks and other financial institutions do better and help prevent this recurring issue?

The Issue                                                                                                                                                      

Between January 2023 and February 2025, nine major UK banks and building societies reported at least 158 IT failure incidents, resulting in over 803 hours (approximately 33 days) of service downtime.

The remainder of Q1 25’ has been no better with additional banks experiencing significant disruption. These banking outages have affected customers on mass, prompting increased scrutiny from lawmakers and regulatory bodies, and quite rightly so. Customer mortgages and other major monthly outgoings have not been paid on time and salaries have been delayed creating significant pain for banking customers.   

The frequency and impact of these outages underscore the need for banks to invest further in robust IT infrastructure and more effective testing of these systems to maintain customer trust and service reliability. I sense everyone affected and those bodies representing them are fast losing patience as these crippling IT outages continue to affect banking capabilities.                                                                                                        

Why are outages commonplace?

Banking outages are becoming more frequent due to a combination of technological, operational, and cybersecurity factors. These include an increased digital dependence; legacy systems & outdated infrastructure; rising cyberattacks; cloud & third-party failures; software updates & system migrations; regulatory & compliance burdens; high transaction volumes and last but not least, human errors & internal misconfigurations. 

What is shocking is the variations behind the causes of these damaging outages. If it's not one thing, it's another. Banking systems are at real risk of an outage for all these reasons. So what can be done to improve the situation?

Effective payment testing is needed

Robust payment testing (often called payment system testing or resilience testing) can significantly reduce banking outages by identifying and mitigating potential failures before they impact customers.

Rigorous testing, using the latest technology, helps prevent these banking outages. Advanced payment testing platforms can effectively assess and validate payment systems before they go live helping to prevent the aforementioned issues. 

Testing methods of the highest quality are increasingly critical for banks to remain fully functional, especially with the growing complexity of payment ecosystems and heightened regulatory scrutiny. 

Cutting-edge testing ensures that systems deliver real-time results without errors or delays, meeting customer expectations for near-instant payment confirmations and settlements. 

Effective payment testing reduces outages by:

• Early detection of software bugs meaning fewer system failures

• Simulated high-volume testing prevents crashes during peak periods

• Cybersecurity stress tests reduce risk of fraud-related shutdowns

• Cloud & API monitoring ensures seamless third-party integration

• Disaster recovery testing improves resilience against unexpected failures

Choosing the right payment testing option

In my opinion, banks seeking a best-in-class payment testing solution should prioritise comprehensive test coverage, automation, and flexibility to handle diverse payment protocols such as ISO8583, ISO20022, and emerging real-time payment schemes. 

Security and compliance are critical, ensuring adherence to industry standards like PCI DSS and regulatory mandates. The solution should support both cloud and on-premise deployments, offering scalability and integration with legacy and modern payment infrastructures. 

Automated analytics can streamline test execution, reduce manual effort, and accelerate time-to-market for new payment products. Additionally, real-time monitoring, robust reporting, and seamless certification management help banks minimise risk and ensure continuous compliance. 

It's also important to engage a payment testing provider that focuses on identifying and addressing potential weaknesses in payment systems, this factor will help to significantly prevent issues that lead to outages.

A top-tier solution should also offer sandbox environments for innovation, strong API capabilities, and third-party integration support to enhance overall efficiency. Ultimately, banks should choose a proven, industry-recognised solution trusted by leading financial institutions to optimise their payment systems with speed, accuracy, and security.

In summary

Investing in robust payment testing will lead to fewer banking outages, better customer experience, and stronger financial stability. 

In 2025, as digital payments continue to evolve at speed, rigorous payment testing has to remain at the forefront of payment providers’ thinking. This will ensure the success of new payment systems being introduced whilst maintaining financial stability, security, and customer trust.