The TSB chief executive is due before MPs today for a second round of questioning over the bank’s IT meltdown and the continued chaos facing thousands of customers.
Paul Pester returns to face the Treasury select committee weeks after being accused by MPs of failing to grasp the enormity of the company’s botched computer system migration in April that left up to 1.9 million digital banking customers without access to their accounts.
It emerged on Wednesday that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was investigating the failure, along with the Prudential Regulation Authority.
The information was disclosed by the committee as it published correspondence with FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey.
In the letter, Mr Bailey described parts of Dr Pester’s evidence to the committee in May as “an optimistic view” and said “greater caution would have made sense”.
He also called into question TSB’s transparency on the problems it had been facing saying Dr Pester could have shared “more detail with the committee”, including the initial views of a team of experts from IBM who were drafted in to help solve the crisis.
:: Customers still suffering one month after TSB meltdown
Dr Pester told the committee in May the fiasco had drawn at least 40,000 complaints from disgruntled customers but he said he had no numbers on how many had quit the lender.
TSB began the planned IT upgrade work on 20 April – transferring 1.3 billion customer records from old parent company Lloyds to a system created by new Spanish owners Sabadell.
The continuing problems forced Dr Pester to give up a £2m bonus linked to the system migration’s successful completion.
Chair of the Treasury committee, Nicky Morgan, said of the FCA’s observations: “The regulator does not make such criticisms lightly.
“I am deeply concerned by TSB’s poor communications about the scale and nature of the problems it has faced, by its response to customer fraud and by the quality and accuracy of the oral and written evidence provided by Dr Pester to the
committee.
“The committee will discuss Mr Bailey’s letter, and the ongoing problems faced by TSB customers, when it sees Dr Pester and other TSB board members, as well as the FCA, on Wednesday.”
Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, also wrote to Mrs Morgan, asking MPs to compel TSB bosses to disclose “essential information” relating to the meltdown and associated disruption.
It emerged further problems ensued after customers who were sent apology letters by the bank were inadvertently forwarded personal details of other TSB clients.
From – SkyNews
