26,000 switched away from TSB between April and June

The bank has revealed today that in the second quarter of 2018, 26,000 customers switched their current account away from TSB, and surprisingly more than 20,000 customers opened a new bank account - meaning it lost around 6,000 overall.

In comparison figures published earlier this week show it lost 16,435 in the first three months of the year, and gained 11,309, meaning its loss over that period was 5,126.

TSB's financial performance in the first six months of the year was significantly hit by the IT issues, with a loss before tax of £107.4 million. It says costs, including customer compensation, additional resources and lost income as a result of waived overdraft fees and interest charges, totalled £176.4 million. 

TSB's online banking and mobile app went offline on Friday 20 April, as the bank started a major upgrade of its systems at 4pm that day. The systems were supposed to be back working again by the end of that weekend, but customers suffered months of problems, with some even being given access to other people's accounts.

See our guide for full information.

Are TSB's IT problems fixed?

TSB says its mobile app, online banking, telephone banking and branch service levels are much improved after the issues experienced earlier this year.

If you're having difficulty logging in on the mobile app, it says you should check you have downloaded the latest version and if the issues continue, fully close the app or internet browser and then try again. If you still can't get access, it says you should visit its online support tool.

While TSB's IT problems seemed to be largely fixed at the end of June, as we covered in our MSE News story, 75,000+ TSB complaints were STILL unresolved - despite many customers waiting more than eight weeks and on social media, some customers are still saying they have not had their complaints resolved.

Why have so few customers left TSB?

Considering the scale of TSB's problems, it is perhaps surprising that it lost, on aggregate, just 900 more customers during April, May and June than it did during the first three months of the year.

Possible reasons for this include people switching to TSB before its IT problems in April, and many being afraid to switch away in case issues arose. In May, we reported that TSB had cancelled direct debits of customers who'd switched away - and claimed they'd DIED

What does TSB say?

Paul Pester, TSB chief executive officer, said: "We're making progress in resolving the service problems customers experienced following our IT migration, and we will continue to work tirelessly until we have put things right.  I know how frustrated many customers have been by what's happened.  It was not acceptable, and was not the level of service that we pride ourselves on – nor was it what our customers have come to expect from TSB. "It has been a difficult time for customers and I am grateful to them for their patience. I would also like to say thank you to our partners for their enormous efforts.  They have done everything in their power to continue serving our customers, and I am proud to see that the values on which the bank has been built have shone through during this time."Our priority in the second half of the year continues to be putting things right for our customers.  Looking further ahead we are determined to get back to bringing more competition to UK banking and ultimately making banking better for consumers and small businesses."