New TSB fiasco as it axes 86 branches and puts 400 jobs at risk
TSB has announced plans to close one in six of its branches in a ‘betrayal’ of customers following two IT meltdowns.
The lender, which was dubbed the Totally Shambolic Bank last year after a huge technology failure, will shut 86 of its 540 outlets
by the end of next year. The move puts up to 400 jobs at risk.
TSB plans to encourage more account holders to use online banking. But it is feared that the strategy, coming so soon after TSB’s IT failures, could backfire and will be ‘disastrous’ for customers.
The bank left nearly two million people locked out of their accounts – some for weeks – in April last year when its online systems failed. Another glitch last Friday meant a significant number of its customers didn’t receive their wages on time. Former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann said: ‘It beggars belief that a company which has had such trouble with technology is suggesting that more customers should be using online banking.
‘In light of the serious problems that this bank has had, the closures seem incredibly insensitive.’
TSB, which has five million customers, has already reduced its network by ten branches so far this year. The remaining 86 closures will affect between 300 and 400 workers.
Dominic Hook, of the union Unite, called the decision ‘absolutely deplorable’. He said: ‘This is a betrayal of the bank’s customers and staff who have remained loyal through recent tough times. It will have a disastrous impact on many local communities.’ Justin Modray, of Candid Financial Advice, said: ‘Forcing more customers to bank online may well prove an own goal for TSB if it doesn’t nail its IT issues.’
Chief executive Debbie Crosbie was brought in seven months ago to improve the Spanish- owned bank after former boss Paul Pester was ousted. She has tried to put the 2018 meltdown in the past, but on Friday, a ‘processing error’ meant many customers did not receive their pay cheques on time. TSB resolved the issue by lunchtime.
Mrs Crosbie defended the closures, saying: ‘Branches will remain a very key part of our business. But right now the footprint that we have is unsustainable.’
The bank claims that after the closures 65 per cent of its 5 million customers will still live within four miles of a branch.
‘A betrayal of customers’
IN advertising campaigns of yesteryear, TSB was the bank ‘that likes to say yes’.
Today, it still can. But only if the question is: ‘Are you hell-bent on treating customers contemptuously?’ Relaunched after the financial crisis with the help of taxpayers’ money, TSB was meant to signal a fairer era in banking – putting savers first.
So it’s deeply dispiriting the lender is closing one in six branches. Scandalously, bosses say customers should bank online.
But TSB recently suffered the biggest IT meltdown in banking history, leaving loyal millions unable to access cash and at risk of fraud. Last week, the computers crashed again. This hardly inspires confidence.
Indeed, if executives are trying to shake off the Totally Shambolic Bank label, they are failing miserably.