TSB has been fined £48million over a historic IT failure that impacted thousands of customers for months.
The major bank was hit by problems in 2018 after a botched IT upgrade left many of its 5.2million customers without access to banking services.
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It’s now been fined £48.7million by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
The £48.7million fine comes on top of the £32.7million that’s already been paid to TSB customers impacted by the error.
That means the FCA’s and PRA’s recent decision will not lead to extra compensation.
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.”
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 started transferring its IT systems and customer service data on to a new platform in April 2018.
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But it suffered the widespread issues and customers were left without internet, mobile and telephone banking systems.
Some customers suffered issues until December that year, the FCA and PRA said.
TSB chief executive Robin Bulloch apologised for the 2018 error.
He added: “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 slapped with a £69.5million fine, but received a 30% discount after it agreed to resolve the matter, the FCA and PRA said.
It comes after the bank revealed the glitch cost it £330 million and meant it suffered a £105.4million pre-tax loss in 2018.
The fiasco also led to former chief executive Paul Pester stepping down as well.
Can I claim compensation for an outage?
The 2018 TSB IT issues were huge in comparison to normal outages.
It led to £32.7million being paid out in compensation to impacted customers
That means no more compensation will be paid out following the FCA and PRA’s decision.
But customers can still be impacted by smaller technical issues which they might be entitled to recompense for.
In July, hundreds of customers were left unable to get onto mobile or internet banking for example.
But are you due compensation for these types of outages?
Unlike telecoms companies, banks aren’t obliged to pay out compensation to customers if there’s been an outage or if they’ve experienced technical issues.
But you might be entitled to some money back depending on how much the disruption affected you as a consumer.
To stake a claim, you have to present evidence of how the outage negatively affected you, including any extra costs incurred.
This might come in the form of late payment charges.
You should make a note of when you were unable to access the services and also the names of the people you spoke to from the company which suffered the outage.
You can find more details about how to complain to TSB on its website.
If TSB doesn’t resolve any complaint, you can take your case up with the Financial Ombudsman Service.
It is an independent body which will resolve any issues based on what it thinks is “fair and reasonable” depending on the circumstances of the case.
The service can resolve your issue over the phone, by email or post depending on what best suits you.
In the case of an IT system outage at a bank, the FOS says any compensation you may receive will be dependent on your circumstances and whether you lost any money as a result.
If it finds the bank was at fault, you may see any fees, charges or fines reimbursed.
This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
