Yahoo Finance TSB boss 'deeply sorry' for ongoing banking problems as online services finally 'up and running'
TSB chief Paul Pester said he was "deeply sorry" for its banking problems, which continued into Tuesday night, but stood by the decision to migrate customers to a new platform at the weekend.
Mr Pester told The Daily Telegraph that the platform was "absolutely ready to go" and had been "tested nine times over".
He apologised unreservedly for the disruption, which has spanned five days with many customers reporting that they are unable to make vital payments.
Mr Pester "resurfaced" on Tuesday morning and issued a statement that he had spent 48 hours with teams at TSB trying to fix its systems. The bank attempted to resolve the issue by taking its mobile app and online banking down again for several hours of maintenance on Tuesday afternoon, although it was still working to resolve the issues late into Tuesday evening.
The problems were eventually fixed early on Wednesday morning.
"Our mobile banking app and online banking are now up and running. Thank you for your patience and for bearing with us," he tweeted.
Our mobile banking app and online banking are now up and running. Thank you for your patience and for bearing with us.
— Paul Pester (@PaulPester) April 25, 2018
The problems first came to light on Sunday evening when TSB said some customers with linked accounts were able to access accounts online they should not have been able to see. Around 2pc of TSB's 5.5 million customers, or 110,000, have a linked account. Mr Pester said that only 402 of those customers "saw data we wouldn't normally make available".
The bank took its new system offline to fix the problem and put it back online at 2am on Monday. It has blamed the disruptions since then on high volumes of people logging in, although Mr Pester claimed that the new platform "is absolutely able to handle the volumes we expect".
Customers have been reporting a wide array of problems beyond those acknowledged, including incorrect balances and the disappearance of accounts. A number of individuals who claim to be TSB customers told The Daily Telegraph that they were able to see accounts to which they had no connection.
Mr Pester said: "We struggle to see how [these problems] could have occurred, or even whether they're TSB customers." He urged customers having such problems to raise them directly with TSB.
The chief executive assured customers they would be compensated for any losses incurred as a result of the service issues.
This isn't the level of service that we pride ourselves on providing, and isn't what our customers have come to expect from TSB, and for that I'm deeply sorry.
— Paul Pester (@PaulPester) April 24, 2018
Of course, customers can rest assured that no one will be left out of pocket as a result of these service issues.
— Paul Pester (@PaulPester) April 24, 2018
TSB customers have been venting their anger on social media, with some saying they are unable to make transfers and pay bills on time.
Others who logged in on Sunday evening said they were temporarily able to access other people's money, including one who told The Daily Telegraph he had gained access to a £2.8m business account that was not his.
A TSB spokesman said the specific access issues related to seeing multiple accounts "lasted only about 20 minutes and impacted just a tiny fraction of our customer base and were fixed last night".
Nicky Morgan MP, chairman of the powerful Treasury select committee, has written to TSB demanding to know what has gone wrong and when normal services will resume.
Ms Morgan said the failures had "all the hallmarks of an IT meltdown".
She will be raising the matter with City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority, which has the power to investigate and fine a bank for an IT failure, as it did with RBS, which had to cough up £56m in 2014.
Ms Morgan said: “This is yet another addition to the litany of failures of banking IT systems."
#TSB@TSB what is going on, Tuesday morning and still can't get into my accounts. System no longer recognises my user name and password.
— andy-mc (@otoronga2001) April 24, 2018
"Sorry", "intermittent" and "soon" seem to have a different meaning at TSB. I can't access internet banking at all. I have things to pay and money to be transferred. Provide a meaningful explanation please. We are frustrated not stupid. #TSB
— senior egg (@senior1egg) April 24, 2018
@TSB no access to business banking since Friday, no idea which customers have paid invoices, staff wages due tomorrow. And all they can say is “there is no timescale” well done �� #TSB
— Lee Todd (@LeeTodd76) April 24, 2018
"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."
Customers had been warned the transfer of 1.3 billion customer records to a new system could affect services from 4pm on Friday to 6pm on Sunday – but the disruption continued overnight and into Monday and Tuesday.
TSB has not said how long it expects the problems to continue but insisted it was "working quickly" and the situation was "calming down".
The calamity has also attracted the attention of the Information Commissioner's Office, which can also fine companies up to £500,000 for a data breach under its current powers.
The FCA issued an updated statement saying it remained in "regular contact" with TSB, adding: "We are working with the firm to ensure customers are properly communicated with and are not left out of pocket.
“We will be talking to the firm to understand exactly what went wrong and the steps that they are taking to ensure something like this does not happen again.” The FCA's powers to fine are unlimited.
A TSB spokesman added: “We are currently experiencing large volumes of customers accessing our mobile app and internet banking which is leading to some intermittent issues with people accessing our services.
"We are really sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and want them to know we are working as hard and as fast as we can to resolve this problem.”
