TOTALLY SHAMBOLIC BANK
Computer meltdown hits up to 2 million Frantic customers can’t use cards or see accounts And chaos could last weeks...
UP to two million TSB customers face weeks of chaos because of a catastrophic IT meltdown.
Scores of customers yesterday reported being unable to access cash or pay bills online.
Debit cards did not work and savers panicked when their accounts vanished from computer screens. Some small businesses could not pay staff or suppliers.
TSB admitted that as many as ten key online banking services would not be fully restored until next month.
The mayhem saw it dubbed the ‘Totally Shambolic Bank’ with boss Paul Pester forced into a grovelling apology. The
disaster started with a weekend computer upgrade. When the new system went live on Sunday evening many customers were locked out but, in some cases, were able to log into the accounts of other people. As the crisis intensified: TSB took the unprecedented step of completely switching off its online banking system. It was expected to be turned on again yesterday evening, but the outage could stretch until later today;
Desperate account holders faced waits of over an hour on the phone to speak to customer service advisers;
TSB, which is Britain’s sixth biggest bank, pledged to compensate every customer affected by the meltdown;
A former star of Grange Hill was unable to pay staff or customers;
Whistleblowers at TSB’s Spanish parent firm, Banco Sabadell, claimed the IT switch had been rushed through under pressure from bosses trying to save cash;
The Commons Treasury committee launched a probe into the disaster.
TSB had previously used a system inherited from its past owner Lloyds Banking Group. The computer upgrade, which had been hailed as the biggest ever in Europe, was undertaken by a number of firms including consultants Accenture and KPMG. The move to TSB’s own version was expected to save around £122million a year.
It had involved moving 1.3billion pieces of data for the bank’s customers. The system had been tested on small groups of customers nine times. However, problems emerged within 20 minutes of the new IT system being turned on when customers reported seeing others’ accounts on their login page.
The bank switched off the system and staff believed that the problem had been resolved. However early on Monday morning a rush of customers logging in online overwhelmed the system tipping it into a fresh meltdown.
While the bank had taken on extra staff to deal with any problems and had planned for a crisis scenario, the scale of the problems was too great.
To solve the crisis yesterday the bank switched off its systems at 10.30am.
Last night, Mr Pester could issue no guarantees about when it would be back online. He is understood to have told staff not to relaunch until the glitches are fully fixed. However, the Mail has discovered that customers have been told a number of key banking services – such as generating codes to transfer money online – will not be running for days.
TSB’s website showed that customers would have to wait until the end of the month or even longer for up to ten separate issues with online banking, mortgages and loans to be sorted out.
Customers who lose credit and debit cards face a longer than usual wait to get a replacement. And savers are barred from making faster payments and from accessing some savings accounts.
Nicky Morgan, who chairs the Commons Treasury committee, said: ‘This is yet another addition to the litany of failures of banking IT systems. Potentially millions of customers could be affected by uncertainty and disruption. It simply isn’t good enough to expose customers to IT failures, including delays in paying bills and an inability to access their own money.
‘Warm words and platitudes will not suffice. TSB customers deserve to know what has happened, when normal services will resume, and how they can expect to be compensated.’
Scottish Tory MP Alister Jack said: ‘TSB customers have been put in a disgraceful situation. It’s entirely unacceptable in this day and age that customers are exposed to an IT crisis that goes on this long with people unable to pay their bills. A great deal of uncertainty and stress has been created by TSB so people need to feel confident that they’ll be refunded for any missed payments – and properly compensated.’
While IT breakdowns have become common in finance, the TSB crisis is thought to be the biggest to hit any bank in the UK. A banking union said that call centre staff were left stressed after receiving abuse from furious customers unable to access their account.
TSB has taken out full-page advertisments in newspapers – including the Daily Mail – to say
sorry to customers. Last night Mr Pester apologised for the problems saying his teams were ‘working as hard and fast as they can to get our services up and running’.
He insisted that no customer would be left out of pocket following the problems.
He said: ‘I’m truly sorry – this isn’t the level of service that we pride ourselves on providing.’
But Richardo Harrez, a furious customer, tweeted: ‘Just write your resignation. This bank’s communication and upfront honesty has been beyond belief. People are desperate and stressed out and you talk clichés.’
Clare O’Brian said: ‘You have just resurfaced after 48 hours with your team while millions have been without access to THEIR money for over 72 hours.’