HSBC has apologized after thousands of UK customers reported they were unable to access mobile and online banking for more than 24 hours.

The bank was flooded with complaints on social media, with users saying they had been unable to pay bills or make discounted Black Friday purchases online since Friday morning.

One customer told the BBC the outage left him unable to pay his rent.

HSBC apologized for "the inconvenience".

"It is impacting HSBC UK customers only - there is no impact to First Direct or M&S Bank customers," it said, referring to other divisions of HSBC UK.

The problems started shortly after 08:00 GMT on Friday, with the bank saying they were "investigating this as a matter of urgency".

Around 09:00 GMT on Saturday, HSBC posted on X saying the glitch had been resolved and online and mobile banking services were back up and running but that "some services may be slower as customers log in".

Marius Acsinte, 34, told the BBC his HSBC account was unavailable, causing several problems.

"I'm not able to open the app to pay my rent due today," he said.

"I was expecting the bank would send a message or an email explaining why, but instead I had to find out online.

"It doesn't matter if it's Black Friday tonight or not, I'm unable to use my money and nobody informed me about why that's happening."

Judi Sutherland, 76, said the problem particularly hits her as someone who lives in a rural area.

"I live in the Highlands of Scotland where branches have been systematically and carelessly closed throughout the region," she said.

"This loss of service means that some would have to journey to Aberdeen to access their accounts - a round trip of some 450 miles.

"The online service from HSBC has been excellent in the past but this outage does underline the vulnerability and dependency of rural communities on such services," she said.

Others have shared their frustration at being unable to make card payments online because they cannot verify purchases using the app.

But the firm said customers affected in this way could "opt for a one-time passcode via SMS".