TSB boss Paul Pester to give up £2m bonus as online banking shambles continues

Chief executive had previously refused to say he would forego the payout

(PA)

TSB boss Paul Pester will give up his £2m bonus as a result of the ongoing IT shambles at the bank.

The chief executive was in line to collect the payout for leading the integration of TSB with its Spanish parent company Sabadell but the bank’s chairman confirmed to MPs on Wednesday that Mr Pester “will not be taking his bonus for this integration”, a decision he said was “wholly appropriate”.

The comments came as thousands of customers remained locked out of online banking for a tenth day.

Mr Pester had previously refused to say he would forego his bonus as a result of the problems and his handling of the aftermath.

He received £2m for guiding the IT integration in 2016 but the bank held back a further £2m in 2017 after costly delays to the project.

The chief executive and chairman, as well as chief operating officer Miquel Montes, were hauled before parliament's Treasury committee on Wednesday to explain how the problems had been allowed to happen, why customers were still experiencing problems and when they would be fixed.

Mr Pester’s responses failed to impress the committee with chair Nicky Morgan describing him as a “staggering example of a chief executive who seems unwilling to acknowledge the scale of the problem”.

Prior to the trio’s appearance, angry TSB customers complained on social media that they had been debited monthly fees for accounts they could not access.

Afterwards, a number of tweets described Mr Pester’s display as arrogant.

The chief executive told the committee that no group of customers had been locked out of their online accounts continuously for two weeks and instead likened the failure to “having a shop that is too small for the amount of customers you have”.

When asked how many people could access the TSB banking app he said: “All I can give you is the data I have.”

“As of now we are at a point where our mobile app login success rates are at a level where you’d expect them to be.

“The percentage of people logging in successfully is 95 per cent. Of course, that means 5 per cent are not logging in successfully but that is often the case for any bank.”

The performance will have done little to win round TSB’s customers many of whom have already threatened to leave the bank.

Some customers reported that they had tried to switch their accounts already but were told by other banks that this was not possible because of TSB’s computer problems.

The TSB mess began at the start of last week after the bank shifted millions of customers’ accounts from an IT system owned by Lloyds, the bank TSB was spun off from in 2013, to one run by Sabadell.

Customers were supposed to be able to log in as normal from last Sunday but hundreds of thousands were unable to. Others managed to log in but, when they did, some or all of their account details had disappeared.

Customers also reported that they could access other people’s accounts, including account numbers, sort codes and transaction histories.