It’s a Llockout

BANKING giant Lloyds has apologised after customers were locked out of their online accounts.

The lender did not reveal how many were affected but claimed it did not impact the group’s Halifax and Bank of Scotland offshoots.

The issue related to account holders who use desktop computers.

A Lloyds spokeswoman said: “We are sorry for any inconvenience for our customers.”

The problems come less than a month after Lloyds group account holders suffered delayed payments. Other banks have also been hit with IT glitches. It comes as more of them close high street branches. COMPETITION watchdogs have delayed their final decision on whether to allow Sainsbury’s mega-merger with Asda by up to eight weeks.

The Competition and Markets Authority had originally planned to publish its final report by March 5. That has now been put back to April 30 at the latest.

The CMA cited the “scope and complexity” of the deal.

Its provisional findings, which were expected any time now, will be published later this month.

It came as frozen food chain Iceland confirmed it might be interested in snapping up stores that Sainsbury’s and Asda are forced to sell.

The pair could be told to offload hundreds of stores to allay competition concerns.

Morrisons is also seen as a potential buyer.