Capital One Faces Technical Outage Affecting Customer Access

2025-01-17 companies

New York, Friday, 17 January 2025.
Capital One’s banking services were disrupted due to a technical issue on 16 January 2025, affecting direct deposits and payment processing. Restoration is expected by 17 January 2025.

Service Disruption Impact

Capital One (NYSE: COF) customers experienced widespread disruption of banking services when a technical outage began around 4:00 AM ET on January 16, 2025 [1][7]. The issue affected various critical services including direct deposits, account access, and payment processing across consumer, small business, and commercial banking segments [1]. According to Downdetector.com, more than 2,000 customers reported problems during the peak of the outage [1][2], with complaints gradually decreasing to approximately 1,700 by late afternoon [2].

Root Cause and Response

The bank attributed the disruption to a technical issue with Fidelity Information Services (FIS), a third-party vendor, which experienced a local power outage at one of its data centers [1]. Capital One’s customer service team has been actively engaging with affected customers, promising to address reasonable fees incurred due to the service interruption [5]. The timing of this technical crisis is particularly sensitive as it coincides with a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit against Capital One, which alleges the bank misled customers about savings account offerings, potentially costing them $2 billion in missed interest [1][4].

Specific Impact Cases

The outage has had significant real-world implications, notably affecting approximately 600 East Baton Parish school employees’ payroll deposits [8]. This represents about 10% of the district’s payroll, specifically impacting 12-month employees [8]. The widespread nature of the disruption has led to mounting customer frustration, with many taking to social media to express concerns about paying bills and purchasing necessities [2].

Resolution Timeline

Capital One has announced that services are expected to gradually return to normal, with the majority of issues projected to be resolved by Friday morning, January 17, 2025 [5][6]. The bank stated it would ‘care for all reasonable fees incurred as a result of this incident once our services are restored’ [5]. Customers are advised to verify their transactions once service is fully restored to ensure all banking activities have been properly processed [7].

Sources

Capital One technical outage