CA Technologies pays millions to RBS over IT catastrophe
Settlement will soften blow to RBS with the fiasco already costing the bank nearly £200m
CA Technologies, the software supplier that was at the heart of the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) IT disaster in 2012, has reportedly paid the bank millions of pounds under a confidential settlement.
RBS, whose banking group includes NatWest Bank and Ulster Bank, was fined £56m for the failure which left millions of customers unable to access their online banking services.
The fine compromised a £42m penalty from the Financial Conduct Authority and a further £14m from the Prudential Regulation Authority. It was the first time the two bodies had taken joint enforcement action.
The £56m fine was on top of a £125m bill to fix RBS's systems after the chaos, and Sky News reports that CA and RBS had reached an agreement which would soften the blow of these charges. At present it's unknown whether the agreement was made before or after the fine.
The glitch itself was a result of a routine upgrade to CA7 batch processing software.
Sky News sources claimed that CA had made a "significant" financial contribution.
Earlier this week, RBS chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, apologised again to customers who were affected by the breakdown.
In March, Alan Grogan, RBS's customer services group chief analytics officer, told Computing that millions of UK citizens could be hit by an IT disaster similar to that suffered by RBS unless banks move off of legacy systems.
He explained that RBS had "100 per cent learned from what happened" and had put in place "special" measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
"[Legacy systems are put on a strategic roadmap], so that we have a plan to move off of or at least strategically place it on a better footing," he said.
"We are investing countless millions on our legacy, technology and data. It doesn't keep me awake at night or worry me, but it is something we need to learn from and we apologise to those affected," Grogan added.