Well, it was a non-denial, denial.
According to press reports at the weekend, TSB said that: “It had no plans to close either Keypoint or Barnwood”. Members will appreciate that’s very different from saying: “TSB will not be closing either Keypoint or Barnwood”. TSB couldn’t say that because it knows, and we know, that’s exactly what it plans to do later in the year. We would simply say to members that we have impeccable sources and we have been right on all our previous predictions about job cuts and branch closures.
Interestingly, we also understand that members of the Change Management team from TSB recently visited Mumbai in India. Now it could be that members of the Change Management team all decided to go on holiday separately and ended up in the same location. Not very likely. A more likely explanation is that TSB in its desperation to save money is looking at all options, including the possibility of outsourcing more work to India. This would be an odd move for a bank that is supposedly community based. Debbie Crosbie needs to understand if that ever happened, this union – we would hope the smaller in-house staff unions followed our lead – would engage externally with customers and stakeholders to stop any jobs being sent abroad.
Members may also have seen Debbie Crosbie’s regulatory and political own goal exposed by the Mail on Sunday. Even if you believe that the election of the Government is going to be good for banks – and there is no evidence of that whatsoever – the last thing you do if you’re a Chief Executive of a bank is to say so publicly. Such naivety is not going to do the TSB any favours. You wouldn’t get Antonio Horta-Osorio, Group Chief Executive of Lloyds Banking Group, saying that. And let’s be honest, the last bank in the world anyone in Government would take advice from on any issue is TSB. The regulators, the FCA and PRA, will be fining TSB this year for its IT meltdown, so the last thing they will want to hear are Mrs Crosbie’s thoughts on regulation.
TSB should come clean and publish all its cost cutting plans now including jobs cuts and office closures. It knows exactly how many jobs are going and where, and staff have a right to know, rather than having the ‘Sword of Damocles’ hanging over their heads for the next year. Given what TSB staff have been through, it’s the least the bank can do.
Members with any questions on this Newsletter can contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 716029.
New Overdraft Charges For Staff
TSB has introduced new overdraft charges for customers, in line with new FCA rules that were introduced last year.
For TSB staff, the bank is proposing to do away with the £3 monthly charge and 6.8% APR and move almost immediately to 39.99% APR to match the new customer rate. When Lloyds introduced new charges, in anticipation of what it believed the FCA would do, it gave staff a significant period of time to adapt to the new regime. TSB are telling staff that the new charges, which in some cases will see monthly increases in overdrafts of up to 500%, will be effective from April 2020. That’s completely unacceptable.
We are reviewing those charges now but, in the meantime, would like to hear from members about how much worse off they are going to be if they can’t reduce their overdrafts before April.