Chief information officer fined £81,620 for IT migration meltdown

In a relatively rare example of enforcement action against an individual under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, a disastrous TSB IT migration project has led to a hefty penalty for the executive in charge. Denis O'Connor draws lessons on the level of oversight needed for outsourcing arrangements.

Denis O'Connoris a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. He was a member of the British Bankers' Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group's board and editorial panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

The Prudential Regulation Authority has fined Carlos Abarca, the former chief information officer of TSB Bank plc, £81,620 for breaching Senior Manager Conduct Rule 2 between 7 March 2016 and 22 April 2018 as he failed to take reasonable steps to ensure TSB adequately managed and supervised its outsourcing arrangement in relation to its 2018 IT migration programme. [1] By admitting his failings at an early stage of the PRA's investigation, Abarca received a one-third discount on the originally-proposed fine of £116,600.