TSB’s IT failure and fraud attack – are you due compensation?

In April this year, TSB had a system outage which resulted in up to 1.9 million customers being locked out of their accounts and thousands suffering aggressive fraud attacks.

The FCA has reported that the Bank was initially overwhelmed by customer fraud complaints, meaning that customers experienced excessive waiting times before speaking to someone at the Bank. In the meantime, thousands of customers had experienced attempts to compromise their bank accounts with some customers being able to see other people’s bank statements, cancellation of direct debit payments or money disappearing from their accounts. It is reported that one customer saw £20,000 suddenly leave his account in the fraud attack. Despite such a significant sum leaving his account, the Bank failed to send the usual security alert and, when he reported this to the Bank, he was placed on hold for 8 hours. The customer was then placed “under investigation” and a fraud alert was placed against his credit file, meaning he was unable to access his accounts for weeks.

The Bank is now being investigated by the FCA and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority over its failure to notify over 4 million customers of the scale of the problem. Paul Pester, TSB’s chief executive, has apologised unreservedly for the “terrible time for TSB customers”.

It seems that TSB has agreed to pay out on all claims of online fraud following the IT disaster. Richard Meddings, the Bank’s chairman, has commented that “we are attempting to set a framework of compensation which takes into account stress and inconvenience and then, much more difficult that that, what we call consequential loss.” As of June 2018, the Bank had already incurred costs of around £20 million in compensation and £29 million in cancelled overdraft fees.

Customers have been advised to contact TSB’s customer services team to make a complaint in the first instance.

How can we help

We can help you make your complaint to the Bank for damages, financial loss and / or consequential losses. Alternatively, if you have made a complaint to the Bank but are not satisfied with the outcome, we can help progress the claim further.

Our expert banking fraud solicitors specialise in pursuing claims against high street Banks, and have extensive knowledge and expertise to successfully progress a claim for both direct and consequential losses. This may well be through the Bank’s internal complaints procedure, or by way of a detailed submission to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Please contact William Fox Bregman on 01202 057740, or send an william.foxbregman@ellisjones.co.uk to discuss your potential claim.