TSB Bank has been fined £48.7million after a computer crash left its customers unable to access their bank accounts. The issue took place in 2018 when the bank attempted to upgrade its computer systems but the transfer went wrong.
The botched IT upgrade left many of its 5.2 million customers unable to access their bank accounts. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) fined TSB for "widespread" in how it handled the transfer of its ITS systems and customer data onto its new platform. The issues affected the company's bank network as well as internet, mobile and telephone banking.
Mark Steward, FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “The failings, in this case, were widespread and serious which had a real impact on the day-to-day lives of a significant proportion of TSB’s customers, including those who were vulnerable. The firm failed to plan for the IT migration properly, the governance of the project was insufficiently robust and the firm failed to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems.”
The switchover began in April 2018 but for some customers, the issues lasted until December 2018. The £48.7m fine follows on from the £32.7m the bank al, ready paid out to its retail and corporate customers impacted by the issues.
Sam Woods, deputy governor for prudential regulation at the Bank of England and chief executive of the PRA, added: “The PRA expects firms to manage their operational resilience as well as their financial resilience. The disruption to continuity of service experienced by TSB during its IT migration fell below the standard we expect banks to meet.”
TSB boss Robin Bulloch said: “We’d like to apologise again to TSB customers who were impacted by issues following the technology migration in 2018. We worked hard to put things right for customers then and have since transformed our business.
“Over the past four years, we have harnessed our technology to deliver new products and better services for TSB customers.”
TSB would have been handed a fined £69.5m but it received a 30 per cent discount as it agreed to resolve the matter. The bank said the debacle has cost it a total of £330m in total.
