Tesco Bank resumes full service, refunds £2.5m to 9,000 customers
Tesco Bank resumes “normal services”, pinpoints the security hole. Source: Getty Images
Tesco Bank has refunded £2.5 million to 9,000 customers who had money stolen from their accounts by fraudsters over the weekend. It has also resumed “normal services” following the temporary suspension of online transactions from current accounts (“to prevent criminal activity”).
Tesco Bank CEO, Benny Higgins, states that the bank’s “first priority throughout this incident has been protecting and looking after our customers”. Many would disagree, however, with the bank failing to adequately address customer concerns as the incident was unfolding. Many customers complained that nobody got in touch with them with any explanation or help, they had to wait for hours to speak to the bank – only to be offered £25 in compensation and wishes of “a good weekend”.
“We’ve now refunded all customer accounts affected by fraud and lifted the suspension of online debit transactions so that customers can use their accounts as normal,” Higgins confirms.
“We’d also like to reassure our customers that none of their personal data has been compromised.”
Tesco Bank has 7.8 million customer accounts across the UK. 136,000 customers hold current accounts with the bank, of these 9,000 were identified as being victims of fraud.
The bank is working with the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to investigate the cyber attack.
The UK’s regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is also investigating the incident and Tesco Bank’s cyber defences. Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the FCA, described the attack as “unprecedented in the UK”. He also said he was worried about weaknesses in UK banks’ complex IT systems.
It is understood Tesco Bank has now pinpointed the security hole.
Also on the case is the National Crime Agency.
Tesco Bank: what’s the tech
Tesco Bank uses Fiserv’s Signature core banking system.
Its mortgage origination and servicing software is provided by Capita Mortgage Software Solutions (formerly Vertex Financial Services). Capita has contacted Banking Technology to say that “its software was not involved in this fraud incident”.
For credit card processing, the bank uses the TS2 processing platform provided by TSYS. TSYS provides Tesco Bank’s credit card business with full customer account management services.
