TSB banking down: TSB app and internet banking restored after outage as Scotland customers left frustrated

Both online banking and the mobile banking app for TSB has been offline, leaving customers frustrated

Thousands of frustrated customers across Scotland were left unable to access their accounts online for a major banking group following a technical error.

The TSB banking app was hit by widespread outages on Tuesday morning. More than 2,100 reports were logged on the downdetector.com site by 8am. The first issues were reported about 6.40am.

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The TSB banking app has gone downThe TSB banking app has gone down
The TSB banking app has gone down | NationalWorld

The error left customers unable to use either online banking services or the mobile banking app.

Just after 8.30am, TSB posted an apology on X, saying: "We're sorry that some of our customers are facing problems accessing our services this morning. Our teams are working to resolve this."

The outage was later rectified, with a TSB spokesperson saying: “We’ve fixed the issue some customers faced accessing our services earlier today. We're sorry for any inconvenience this caused them.”

During the outage, one user posted on X: “@TSB is the Mobile banking app down again? I cannot get access into my account and now it’s telling me I have no accounts with yourself." Another posted to social media: “@TSB Rather than creating posts about cakes, you could possibly invest that time more wisely. Perhaps by ensuring that I have access to my money, when I need it most. App tells me I have no accounts with you. What a joke, regretting my switch…?

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More than 60 per cent of problems reported to the Down Detector service were about difficulties with mobile banking. A further 29 per cent said they were experiencing trouble accessing Internet banking.

It came as TSB was fined £10.9 million by regulators for its treatment of people in financial difficulty.

The bank has paid nearly £100m in redress to more than 230,000 mortgage, overdraft, credit card and loan customers found to have been affected.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the bank’s “woeful systems and controls exposed its customers to risk of harm”.

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Between June 2014 and March 2020, TSB was found to have inadequate training for staff who were in charge of agreeing repayment plans for customers in arrears.

Staff were potentially encouraged by incentive schemes to prioritise the number of plans they made over taking the time to understand individual circumstances and set realistic repayment plans.

This meant TSB risked agreeing unaffordable payment arrangements with people in difficulty or charging them inappropriate fees, according to the regulator’s findings. It said this could have heightened uncertainty and stress, including for vulnerable customers.

Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “If you get into difficulty, you hope for – and we expect – fair treatment so a stressful situation isn’t made worse.

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“TSB’s woeful systems and controls exposed its customers to risk of harm and meant it missed opportunity after opportunity to do the right thing.

“While it did take action, it took us instigating a review before it acted effectively to address all the issues.”

The FCA said TSB became aware of potential problems with its system in December 2016, but it did not take effective action to fully address them until the review was opened in 2020.

Nevertheless, TSB would have been fined £15.6m but because it worked closely with the FCA to fix its systems and redress customers, the fine was cut by 30%.

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The bank has finished a comprehensive programme to address the issues, costing it £105m.

A spokesman for TSB said: “These are historic issues, and we have contacted all affected customers to apologise and reimburse them for not providing the level of service we should have.

“We fixed the underlying issues some time ago and have considerably enhanced our support for customers experiencing financial difficulty.”

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