TSB makes £107m H1 loss after IT meltdown

Paul Pester

TSB — owned by Spain’s Banco Sabadell — said on Friday its recent IT meltdown contributed to a statutory loss before tax of £107.4 million in the six months to June 30, 2018.

TSB said around 26,000 customers switched their bank account away from TSB in the second quarter of the year — but more than 20,000 customers opened a new bank account or switched their account to TSB in the same period.

As at June 30, TSB’s total customer lending was £31 billion.

Total customer deposits stood at £29.6 billion — a reduction of £0.9 billion compared to December 2017, and a reduction of £0.4 billion year-on-year.

“TSB’s mobile app, online banking, telephone banking and branch service levels are much improved after the issues caused by the switch to our new IT system, and have been for some time,” said TSB.

“Our focus remains on minimising the level of future service interruptions for our customers.

“Following migration, and in order to mitigate the customer impact of the service disruption, TSB recruited over 1,800 people and redeployed a further 700 partners into customer-facing roles …

“No TSB customer will be left out of pocket as a result of these IT issues, and no customer complaint will go unanswered.

“To ensure customers are compensated properly and as quickly as possible TSB has created a dedicated and experienced team with more than 260 people.

“TSB has recognised additional post-migration costs, including customer compensation, additional resources and foregone income as a result of waived overdraft fees and interest charges, of £176.4 million.

“TSB’s financial performance in the first six months of the year was significantly impacted by the IT migration with a statutory loss before tax of £107.4 million.”

TSB CEO Paul Pester said: “We’re making progress in resolving the service problems customers experienced following our IT migration, and we will continue to work tirelessly until we have put things right.

“I know how frustrated many customers have been by what’s happened.

“It was not acceptable, and was not the level of service that we pride ourselves on – nor was it what our customers have come to expect from TSB.

“It has been a difficult time for customers and I am grateful to them for their patience.

“I would also like to say thank you to our partners for their enormous efforts.

“They have done everything in their power to continue serving our customers, and I am proud to see that the values on which the bank has been built have shone through during this time.

“Our priority in the second half of the year continues to be putting things right for our customers.

“Looking further ahead we are determined to get back to bringing more competition to UK banking and ultimately making banking better for consumers and small businesses.”