RBS Group Facing Huge Fine Over Massive 2012 IT System Meltdown
We turn our attention in this week’s IT Hiccups to one of the truly major IT ooftas of the past decade—one that was back in the news this week: the meltdown of the IT systems supporting the RBS banking group. (That group includes NatWest, Northern Ireland’s Ulster Bank, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.) The meltdown began in June 2012 but wasn’t fully resolved until nearly two months later. The collapse kept 17 million of the Group’s customers from accessing their accounts for a week, while thousands of customers at Ulster Bank reported access issues for more than six weeks.
Last week, Sky News reported that the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) informed RBS that it was facing record breaking fines in the “tens of millions of pounds” for the malfunction, which was blamed on a faulty software upgrade. In addition, the Sky News story states that the Central Bank of Ireland is looking at imposing fines on Ulster Bank over the same issue. The meltdown has already cost RBS some £175 million in compensation and other corrective costs.
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