Online banking outages reported on same day millions of Americans receive stimulus payment

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CINCINNATI - Several online banking issues were reported Wednesday on the same day that more than 80 million Americans were expected to receive a stimulus payment into their bank account.

Most eligible Americans who filed their taxes in 2018 or 2019 were expected to see a payment of $1,200 or more, being directly deposited into bank accounts or mailed to households — depending on how they’ve filed tax returns in the past.

On the same day, many users on Twitter reported having trouble accessing their online bank accounts, including customers with U.S. Bank, BB&T, SunTrust, PNC and Fifth Third Bank.

“Both of my banks PNC and NASA Federal Credit Union’s online banking sites are down,” one person wrote.

“I got paid today and I'm trying to check if my account has been stimulated yet. But of course online banking is down,” another chimed in.

“The bank I work at, suntrust , and union have all their online banking apps shut down. I’m annoyed,” a Twitter user shared.

Truist Financial Corporation, the bank holding company formed following the merger of BB&T and SunTrust, issued a statement saying it was working to resolve its mobile banking issues.

“We’re aware of the issues our clients experienced this morning on our heritage BB&T and SunTrust digital banking platforms due to higher than normal volume. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused for our clients. Some of the issues have already been resolved, and we’re working as quickly as possible to restore all services.”

U.S. Bank also said it was aware of the issue.

"We are aware that some of our customers are reporting intermittent issues when trying to log in to their accounts via usbank.com and our mobile app," the company said in a statement. "We appreciate their patience as our teams investigate this matter."

On Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service also launched a tracking tool to allow taxpayers to see when their stimulus money will arrive and confirm how they want to be paid — which also reportedly experienced some intermittent issues.

The IRS did not immediately return a request for comment.