IT failure leaves Hargreaves Lansdown clients unable to make transactions

Thousands of clients of the UK financial services giant Hargreaves Lansdown have reported problems logging into digital services and making transactions.

The Bristol-based company, which manages private investments for two million people, has confirmed there are "technical issues" affecting their website and mobile app.

In a statement on Friday morning the company said this was impacting the ability to perform account transactions but said clients' assets and data were "secure" and there was "no evidence of any cyber incident data breach".

According to website Downdetector, which monitors web outages, thousands of people have reported problems since the disruption began on Thursday evening.

In a statement on X the firm, has apologised for the inconvenience caused and pledged to get its services working fully again as soon as possible.

There has been an angry reaction from some X users in response to the post.

Some have accused the company of a lack of dilligence while others have threatened to move their business to a rival firm.

A number of users have also asked if the firm will pay compensation.

'Few thousand pounds of missed profit'

A Hargreaves Lansdown client for more than 15 years, who asked only to be identified as Paul, said he used the platform to trade every day.

He estimated the technical issues had already cost him "a few thousand pounds of missed profit".

"As the UK's biggest trading and funds shop, this is serious. I called this morning but got more vague statements of technical issues they have been working on through the night.

"The impact on me and, I believe, every client is that I cannot log in to transact.

"I want to know what is wrong and how long until it gets fixed?"

Rob Bolton, from London, is a Hargreaves Lansdown customer and has not been able to access his personal stocks and shares ISA account through either the website or the app since yesterday.

"It's particularly worrying as customers don't understand the extent of the technical issue or even when we will be able to trade again," he told the BBC.

"This is especially concerning considering the geopolitical context and the volatility in the markets."

Another client of the firm, Gerardo Vece, from Buckinghamshire, told the BBC: "I have oil and gas investments which are leveraged and designed to be held for less than one day, so they are very volatile right now, and I can't trade them online or over the phone or even access my account."

"Not being able to act on these movements means I can't benefit from my investment."