Treasury Committee demands answers over “IT meltdown” at TSB

Earlier this month, TSB informed customers that during a planned upgrade to its systems between 4pm on Friday 20 April and 6pm on Sunday 22 April, services such as online banking may not be available.

However there have been widespread reports of the non-availability of internet and mobile banking after the scheduled downtime came to an end.

There have also been reports that TSB customers could access the accounts of other TSB customers, including their account numbers, sort codes and transaction histories, and possibly having the ability to perform actions on these accounts, including transferring money.

Nicky Morgan is now enquiring about the extent of the failure and how TSB intends to compensate customers who have suffered a breach of potentially highly-sensitive personal data.

Morgan said: “The reports of unauthorised transactions, access to other customers’ accounts, and failures of in-branch services have all the hallmarks of an IT meltdown.

“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.

“I will be writing to the FCA in due course for their assessment.”