Charities across the UK have warned they are struggling to pay staff and suppliers after an ongoing outage at CAF Bank left customers unable to access online banking services.

The bank suspended access to its online banking portal last week after identifying a security issue involving third-party software, at the same time as many charities are working on month-end payroll.

CAF Bank has stressed that its core banking systems remain unaffected and that customer funds are secure,however, the disruption has left many charities reliant on telephone banking to process urgent transactions, with some reporting lengthy waits for assistance.

Central Hall Southampton director, Stephen Noble said his charity had been unable to access its accounts since Friday.

He wrote on LinkedIn: "We have been 'locked out' since Friday and no comms from them since Monday at 9am. Over three hours waiting time on the phone for customer service! Fortunately we ran payroll and a pay run a couple of days prior."

Noble added that the charity had received no further updates and expressed concern over customer support, saying the incident had damaged confidence in the bank.

Youth4Youth founding chairman, Joshua Towers said the delays mean their young employees are now "facing financial penalties".

"Youth4Youth have been unable to get through to customer service to enable payroll payments to be made. The unacceptable level of service must be addressed and ability to meet our commitments to employees enabled as soon as possible," he added.

CAF Bank chief executive Alison Taylor apologised for the disruption, saying the bank was working with external experts to resolve the issue.

"We have informed CAF Bank customers that the online banking service will be unavailable until further notice. I am very sorry for the disruption and understand the frustration this can cause for our customers," she said.

"We are working with external experts to fix an issue we identified with third-party software related to our online banking portal. The core bank is not affected.

"We are still able to support on the phone, and we are prioritizing time-sensitive payments such as payroll."

Martin Bailey, partner at Goodman Jones, said the incident has demonstrated the importance of financial resilience for charities.

He said: "For charities, losing access to online banking can have significant operational and financial consequences, particularly at month-end when payroll and supplier payments are due."

Bailey urged organisations to maintain robust payment controls and remain alert to fraudsters seeking to exploit the disruption by impersonating banks or requesting alternative payment methods.

He also recommended that charities review whether they have appropriate contingency arrangements, such as access to a second banking provider, and record any disruption caused by the outage to help challenge late payment penalties and strengthen future risk planning.

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