LONDON (Reuters) -British banks Lloyds and Barclays on Monday apologised to customers who suffered service outages over the past 48 hours, the latest in a string of such disruptions in recent years as lenders push their customers to bank online.

Lloyds Bank and Halifax customers reported issues with payments on Monday morning, in the latest service issue to hit the sector.

LLOYDS, Halifax and Bank of Scotland online banking went down as customers complained of missing payments and wages. Hundreds of customers were reporting issues via the Downdetector platform,

Britain's Lloyds Banking Group said on Monday that some of its customers were affected by an outage preventing them from making or receiving payments, after hundreds of customers reported problems with the service.

Both banks have confirmed customer issues ‘making and or receiving payments’ and said they were working ‘to have everything back to normal’.

Halifax and Lloyds customers are also told to contact their bank directly to request compensation. They can do so via phone, the bank’s online live chat service, or by visiting a branch. If you are not happy with the compensation offer, then your next step is to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Both Lloyds Bank and Halifax have confirmed system issues, as users of both banks - part of the Lloyds Banking Group - reported problems with their banking apps, including difficulties making and receiving payments. It follows a major outage at Barclays on Friday (January 31), which extended into the weekend.