A computer system meltdown in 2012 will cost the Royal Bank of Scotland tens of millions of pounds in fines, it has been revealed.
RBS has already said that it will put aside £175m to reimburse account holders after a bungled software upgrade meant that 7m customers were unable to access their accounts or transfer money for nearly a month. However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has now told the bank that it will have to pay a record fine for the technology-related failures.
RBS has been given 28 days to respond to the FCA’s settlement proposition and may be able to negotiate a 30% reduction if it agrees to pay earlier than the deadline.
The 81% taxpayer-owned bank has also said that it will invest £1 billion in IT over the next three years.
“To access and manage our money we depend on the banks’ IT systems being reliable. But IT outages continue, interrupting key banking services,” said FCA director of supervision Clive Adamson, in April.
“We want to make sure that the banks have resilient IT systems in place that are able to cope with consumer demand, so customers aren’t left financially stranded or disadvantaged.”
