Doubts Over City of London's "Ageing Tech Systems"

Doubts Over City of London's "Ageing Tech Systems" in Age of Cyber War

- Doubts over City of London’s “fintech” in age of cyber war
- Thousands left in “financial limbo” after tech “error”
- 600,000 RBS customer payments go "missing" in "system failure”
- Glitch comes after bank was fined £56 million in November for 2012 tech fiasco
- Failure is "the latest of many in the industry" - Treasury Committee
- Banks "ageing tech systems" ill-equipped to deal with cyber-terrorism, cyber-war
- Gold coins, bars held outside tech dependent banking system not vulnerable to cyber-attacks

Banks' "archaic technology systems" are unable to cope with the demands of modern online banking according to the Financial Times. The claim was made over the weekend in an FT article discussing the latest fintech glitch suffered by Royal Bank of Scotland last Tuesday in which payments of 600,000 customers "went missing."

It would follow that these same "archaic" systems would not stand up very well in the face of a concerted cyber-attack from hostile terrorists or indeed nation-states.

The latest fintech failure affected RBS customers and customers of ITS , Coutts and Ulster Bank in Ireland.

Customers were left without cash for three days after a computer “glitch” led to 600,000 payments - including wage packets, benefits and tax credits - going "missing."

The UK regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has said it will review this latest issue when the affected customers have been dealt with. In November RBS was hit with a £56 million fine after the June 2012 fiasco which left 6 million customers inconvenienced for weeks, many of whom could not access funds.

The FT warns that

"The latest problems throw doubts on the ability of banks' archaic technology systems to cope with the increasing number of customer transactions spurred by digital banking." The Chairman of the Treasury Committee at Westminster, Andrew Tyrie, said "This looks like a serious IT failure at RBS, the latest of many in the industry."

In January, Sam Wood - a director at the PRA - told a committee

"I feel we are a very long away from being able to sit here with confidence and say that the UK banks' IT systems are robust."

ENDS

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