I suffered from IT meltdown too insists TSB chief
I had trouble sleeping, says £3m boss
THe millionaire boss of TSB has claimed he ‘also suffered’ from the IT fiasco which left two million customers cut off from their bank accounts.
Josep oliu, chairman of TSB’s Spanish owner Sabadell, said he lost several nights’ sleep over the crisis that engulfed the lender in April.
The disastrous computer upgrade left customers unable to access their information online for days, while IT systems in branches seized up. The fiasco also sparked thousands of account raids by fraudsters.
However in comments to staff – leaked to the Daily Mail – Mr oliu appeared to downplay the events.
He claimed problems are inevitable when customers are moved between computer systems and added that rivals have also had issues. He said: ‘I appreciate the work that you’ve done, I appreciate the suffering you’ve gone through, but let me tell you, I’ve gone through all of the suffering myself as well.
‘I spent several nights without sleep, like you did, because that was a major setback for Sabadell. everybody was put to work, many without sleep.’ Mr oliu, who was paid more than £3million last year, also complained about ‘cruel’ media coverage of the bank’s mistakes. The chairman had sparked fury when pictures emerged of him sipping drinks in the VIP zone at a Barcelona tennis tournament as the crisis unfolded.
Mr oliu went on to argue that the IT disaster should have been expected, and that the bank had been treated unfairly. He told employees: ‘TSB had to go through something that is very difficult. Things didn’t go exactly the way we expected. There’s not a migration that happens that’s free of problems, ever.
‘Let me say that difficulty of access to systems happens in the big UK banks all the time.’ Following the fiasco, former TSB chief executive Paul Pester was forced out with a payoff of at least £1.7million – but no one else at TSB or Sabadell has lost their job in the aftermath.
Mr oliu praised Mr Pester in his address to staff, saying: ‘I only can say good words for Paul’s contribution. Paul has been a very honourable manager. He probably made mistakes – we always make mistakes, the people who don’t make mistakes will never progress – but he also did a lot of good things for the bank.’
Mark Brown, general secretary of trade union TBU, which represents TSB workers, said: ‘Staff will be egregiously offended by Josep oliu complaining about the fact that he lost a few nights’ sleep at the height of the IT meltdown. They have constantly been under pressure for months trying to deal with the fallout.’
TSB has received 159,000 complaints about the crisis, and 87,000 are yet to be answered.
A TSB spokesman said: ‘These comments were made during an informal visit to thank TSB partners for their hard work following the IT migration. The remarks should be seen in that context. We are continuing our efforts to compensate customers appropriately.’