TSB risk chief Iain Laing steps down after IT meltdown
TSB’s chief risk officer Iain Laing has become the latest executive to part ways with the bank as it reels from the fallout of a massive IT meltdown.
Laing will step down at the end of January after three years in the role and will be replaced by chief audit officer Carlos Paz, who joined TSB from Spanish parent company Sabadell in 2016.
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The departure is the latest instalment in an exodus of top brass from the challenger bank after a tech malfunction left 2m customers without access to online banking in April 2018.
A report by law firm Slaughter and May concluded TSB’s board lacked “common sense” in the run-up to the outage, which occurred when the bank attempted to migrate customers onto Sabadell’s platform.
TSB raised eyebrows last year when it moved former IT chief Carlos Abarca, who is under investigation by financial regulators for his role in the crisis, to the role of chief technology innovation officer, placing him outside the jurisdiction of the City watchdog’s Senior Managers’ Regime.
Abarca was then quietly moved back to Spain, the Sunday Times reported last month.
A string of other top executives have also left following the scandal, which has cost the bank roughly £370m in compensation and expenses and led to the resignation of chief executive Paul Pester.
Chief operating officer Helen Rose, branch chief Peter Navin and commercial banking boss Richard Davies were among the high-profile departures last year.
Under new chief executive Debbie Crosbie TSB has unveiled plans to close 82 branches and slash up to 400 jobs as part of a strategy overhaul aimed at saving £100m by 2022.
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However, the firm has denied reports it will carry out a fresh wave of job cuts that would impact central office roles, as well as a handful of regional operations.
In a statement Crosbie said Laing had been a “key member of the leadership team that steered the bank through migration and contributed to recovering the bank’s reputation”.