It started early Friday morning—customers across the United States woke up to an unwelcome surprise: they couldn’t access their bank accounts. TD Bank and Zelle users were among the first to report issues, but by 10 a.m., the disruption had snowballed, affecting a wide range of financial institutions. Customers from Ally Bank, Prosperity Bank, Bank of America, Navy Federal Credit Union, Capital One, Santander, and several regional banks like NBT Bank, Flagstar Bank, Cadence Bank, Webster Bank, Park National Bank, and Northwest Bank reported that they were unable to log in or send payments.

Reports of the outage surged on the popular website DownDetector, where users across the country flooded the platform with complaints. By 8 a.m., nearly 800 complaints had been logged for TD Bank and Zelle alone—with numbers climbing steadily throughout the morning.

A Common Culprit: Third-Party Vendor Outage

As speculation mounted, representatives from Zelle and Webster Bank confirmed the issue was rooted in a problem with a third-party service provider. In a statement to PIX11 News, Webster Bank acknowledged the cause:

“A third party vendor is experiencing a datacenter incident that is impacting Webster and other banks. We are working diligently with our vendor to resolve any technology access issues our clients may be experiencing as quickly as possible.”

Zelle also released a statement noting that the issue was out of their hands and linked to an independent third-party vendor that supports specific financial institutions.

“We are aware that certain Zelle® users at some financial institutions are not able to use Zelle at this time… Zelle users may see transactions marked as ‘payment pending’ in the meantime. We will share updates as more information becomes available.”

Social Media Uproar and Customer Anxiety

As hours passed with no resolution, frustrated customers turned to social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook to voice their concerns. Many expressed anxiety about missed bill payments, unprocessed payroll deposits, and the inability to access emergency funds.

TD Bank responded to the backlash by acknowledging the disruptions and assuring users that its technical team was actively working on a fix:

“We’ve been advised some applications may be experiencing issues and our Technical Support team is working diligently to resolve this. We appreciate your patience.”

The Bigger Picture: Fragility of Modern Banking Infrastructure

This incident highlights just how deeply interconnected today’s banking systems are, and how dependent they’ve become on third-party tech vendors. A single glitch at a vendor’s data center has rippled across multiple financial institutions, disrupting services for thousands, if not millions, of users.

While digital banking has brought unparalleled convenience, it also introduces vulnerabilities that traditional brick-and-mortar systems never faced. And when things go wrong, the effects can be immediate and widespread.

What’s Next?

As of Friday afternoon, no specific timeline had been given for full restoration. Financial institutions are continuing to post updates, but many users remain in the dark, literally and figuratively, as they stare at frozen apps and “pending” payment statuses.

This is a developing story, and updates are expected as banks work with the unnamed third-party vendor to restore services.