TSB’S apology letters break data laws, says MP

TSB’S ongoing problems show no sign of abating, after a glitch led to letters of apology being sent to the wrong customers, potentially breaking new data privacy laws.

The letters were sent to say sorry for the beleaguered bank’s slow responses to complaints, but ended up at different addresses. Some included other people’s names, addresses and customer reference numbers.

John Mann, the Labour MP who sits on the Treasury select committee that is scrutinising TSB’S system failures, told The Daily Telegraph that the blunder could result in the bank getting into trouble under new GDPR laws.

“They’ve breached the law and there’ll be consequences from it. This information could be used by fraudsters and it will undoubtedly cause people distress,” he said.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for policing the new GDPR rules, which are designed to protect customer privacy. It can levy fines of up to 4pc of a company’s turnover. A spokesman said: “The ICO is continuing to make enquiries in relation to TSB and we are aware of ongoing issues. Customers who are concerned about their personal data can contact us.” A spokesman for TSB said: “We are working with our third-party supplier to understand the root cause of the error and we’d like to apologise to anyone that may be impacted.”

TSB has endured more than a month of IT failures after a botched system switch in April led to customers being unable to access their money online and other service outages.

The bank has begun compensating customers affected. Paul Pester, the chief executive, has said nobody will be left out of pocket. Mr Pester is set to be grilled by MPS again next Wednesday. His previous appearance was widely criticised, with Nicky Morgan, the committee’s chairman, accusing him of “staggering” complacency.