TSB 'data breach' amid online banking upgrade chaos

The bank says it is "working as hard and as fast" as it can to fix "issues" after an upgrade hit mobile and online services



TSB has apologised after problems with online banking temporarily left some users able to access other accounts and also resulted in intermittent access to its service.

It came after the bank, which has five million customers, shut down online banking and limited some other services over the weekend for planned work.

The City regulator and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) have both been in contact with the lender over the issue.

Over the weekend TSB, now owned by Spain's Sabadell banking group, was migrating all its customers onto a new banking platform. It had previously been using systems belonging to its former owner Lloyds Banking Group.

It said this migration occurred correctly. However, problems began to arise when the system was switched back on again on Sunday evening, prompting customers to raise concerns on social media.

One said he could see other people's accounts totalling more than £20,000, while another reportedly discovered he had been wrongly credited with £13,000 after logging back in.

Account holders had been warned last week that services faced disruption from 4pm on Friday as IT work was carried out, with systems turned back on again at 6pm on Sunday.

I worked with many banks and I can tell you some of their 'upgrading' procedures are atrocious.

TSB online banking chaos leaves MPs demanding action

TSB’s botched IT “upgrade” has snowballed into a full-scale crisis that has left up to 1.9 million customers locked out of their accounts for five days, with MPs demanding action and the bank facing a potential multimillion-pound compensation bill and regulatory fines.

All access to the bank’s internet and mobile services remains blocked, while customers calling its phone banking service report waiting times of more than an hour.

In branches, some customers are being told it could be another 48 hours before they can access their accounts properly, while the bank’s website says some issues, such as one-time passwords and Isa transfers, will only be fixed “by the end of April”.

The TSB chief executive, Paul Pester, apologised for the chaos, but did not give a definite timescale for the reopening of digital services, which were closed at 10.30am on Tuesday.

The botched transfer of banking data has plunged the bank into the worst turmoil since it was spun out of Lloyds. About 1.3bn customer records previously managed on IT systems at Lloyds Bank were transferred over the weekend to IT systems provided by TSB’s new owner, Spanish bank Sabadell.

While most TSB account holders have been able to continue using their cards to make payments and withdraw cash from ATMs, many say the problems are deeper than TSB is admitting.

Pester admitted that 402 TSB customer accounts had been exposed for a period on Sunday night. “Four hundred and two customers could see some data that we would not normally not show them online,” he said.

Nicky Morgan, the chair of the Treasury committee, has written to Pester to demand answers and will also write to the Financial Conduct Authority.

Ooh, she's written a letter! I'm sure that'll make a HUGE difference!

I recall playing a 'what if' scenario not a million miles away from this with a certain UK bank. I was categorically told it was impossible and that these situations could not occur. The very next week the bank I had been working with had a major outage due to a botched 'upgrade.'

Whilst I don't bank with those offering the best interest rates, the one I use has a reasonable record with this type of thing. - A small price to pay for peace of mind I think.

I've also watched more car IT upgrades go belly up than people would believe possible.

Not sure if the other bank's troubles are related...

I refuse to have anything to do with online banking. At best they freeze your account if there's any so-called 'suspicious activity' which means you can't do any business at all for several days.