UK regulators have imposed an £81,000 nice on a former TSB data officer over the financial institution’s IT meltdown in 2018 that left hundreds of thousands of shoppers locked out of their accounts.

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) stated Carlos Abarca, who was TSB’s chief data officer on the time of the meltdown, “did not take affordable steps” to make sure that an outsourcing agency owned by TSB’s guardian firm was prepared to hold out the IT migration of shoppers en masse.

The nice in opposition to Abarca comes months after the financial institution itself was fined £48m in December for “widespread and critical” failings associated to the debacle, which arose throughout its separation from its former guardian firm, Lloyds Banking Group.

Abarca is the one TSB govt to this point to be held personally accountable by regulators for the IT migration failure.

The Financial institution of England declined to remark when requested whether or not any investigations into different bosses have been going down. It might go away the door open for additional fines in opposition to administrators and executives who have been working at TSB on the time of the meltdown.

Paul Pester was compelled to resign as TSB’s chief govt inside months of the incident, after intense criticism from regulators and MPs.

The nice for Abarca is without doubt one of the few issued below the UK regulatory senior managers’ regime, which goals to carry bosses personally accountable when issues go incorrect.

Abarca had been chargeable for ensuring TSB was following the PRA’s outsourcing guidelines, and had been managing the financial institution’s relationship with its important third-party provider for its IT migration programme.

The regulator stated Abarca gave assurances to the board, telling them the provider was prepared for the migration in early 2018, however did this earlier than he had acquired ample assurances from the provider itself. It resulted in chaos for hundreds of thousands of shoppers, who have been locked out of their accounts for weeks after the incident started in April 2018, with some nonetheless going through points in December that 12 months.

Abarca left TSB a 12 months later, in December 2019, earlier than becoming a member of TSB’s Spanish guardian firm, Sabadell, as its chief know-how officer. He stepped down from Sabadell earlier this 12 months.

“Senior managers have an important function to play in guaranteeing that corporations handle and supervise outsourcing successfully,” stated the PRA’s chief govt, Sam Woods. “On this case, the PRA has fined Abarca as a result of his administration of a key outsourcing relationship fell under the usual we anticipate.”

The PRA diminished Abarca’s nice by 30% after he agreed to settle the matter. The nice would have in any other case been £116,600.