TSB hit by 10,600 fraud incidents says regulator

Beleaguered bank TSB has been hit by more than 10,600 fraud "incidents" since its computer systems meltdown, the City's top regulator said today.

Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said that TSB were "initially… overwhelmed" by the volume of complaints and enquiries.

Fraudsters have targeted the bank after its migration to a new core banking platform caused massive issues, locking hundreds of thousands of customers out of their accounts for weeks.

MPs and the regulators have come across reports of some TSB customers watching money disappear from their accounts in front of their eyes.

At peak times the bank has only been able to answer one in every 10 calls put through to them, the FCA said.

John Sutherland, a special adviser at the FCA, said: "They are not resourcing themselves yet to clear them fast enough."

He added: "Theres a huge variability in the ability of TSB to answer calls that are placed to fraud."

The FCA bosses' comments were made at a hearing of the Treasury Select Committee, with TSB chief executive Paul Pester set to be grilled later.

Bailey agreed with committee chair Nicky Morgan that the TSB call response has not met the standards expected by the regulator.

He added that there appeared to have been an "absence of robust regression testing” of fixes to issues, meaning efforts to address problems only created more problems.

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CityAM

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