The UK’s financial regulator has fined TSB Bank £10.9m for failing to fairly treat customers in financial difficulty over six years.
The bank has already paid nearly £100m in compensation to over 230,000 affected customers, including those with mortgages, overdrafts, credit cards, and loans.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) criticised the bank’s inadequate systems and controls, which exposed customers to potential harm. Between June 2014 and March 2020, TSB was found to have provided insufficient training to staff responsible for setting up repayment plans for customers in arrears.
The FCA noted that staff may have been incentivised to prioritise the number of repayment plans set up rather than taking the time to assess individual circumstances and create realistic, affordable plans. This led to the risk of agreeing to unaffordable payments or imposing inappropriate fees, particularly affecting vulnerable customers.
Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “TSB’s poor systems and controls left customers at risk of harm and missed numerous opportunities to do the right thing.”
