The Chief Executive of TSB has apologised for its four- day banking meltdown.
CEO Paul Pester said he was “deeply sorry” for TSB’s recent embarrassing IT debacle which stopped users from accessing bank accounts and using payment systems by taking down it’s mobile app and online banking service.
“This isn’t the level of service we pride ourselves on providing and isn’t what our customers have come to expect from TSB, and for that, I’m deeply sorry,” he said.
Mr Pester had previously assured TSB customers via Twitter that the problems would be resolved in a matter of hours.
The bank also suffered a data breach during which over 400 customers were shown details of other customer accounts while attempting to access their own.
The effect of TSB’s online fiasco was felt by some 1.9 million customers who were locked out of their accounts, including those with both businesses and personal accounts with the bank. Employers nationwide were unable to pay their workers and suppliers while others were prevented from paying for necessities such as rent, bills and groceries, with many payment cards declined at checkouts.
Customers took to Twitter to voice their complaints, and are now demanding compensation, after unsatisfactory responses from the bank, and with some threatening to leave TSB once the system is up and running.
The Chair of Parliament’s Treasury Committee, Nicky Morgan MP, wrote into Mr Pester demanding answers for the system failure and compensation for TSB customers:
“Warm words and platitudes will not suffice. TSB customers deserve to know what has happened when normal services will resume, and how they can be expected to be compensated,” she wrote.
The reason behind the commotion is the split of TSB from Lloyds Banking Group in 2013. TSB had since begun to develop its platform despite still being owned by Lloyds, but the recent move to its new Spanish owner, Banco Sabadell, has meant a complete IT migration which is the source of its technical glitches.
