An independent investigation has found that inadequate testing led to the botched-up TSB banking platform upgrade and its resultant meltdown last year.

The report, commissioned by the UK-based bank, was prepared by law firm Slaughter & May.

It highlighted that TSB failed to recognise ‘the scope and complexity’ of the new banking system before its failure, Reuters reported citing the report.

The upgrade involved moving its back-end technology from the old Lloyds system to Sabadell system.

The report noted that TSB-parent Sabadell’s IT arm Sabis was underprepared to operate the platform. Additionally, test runs were conducted on only one of TSB’s two new data centres before the launch.

However, TSB chairman Richard Meddings said that the bank does not agree with the report.

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In a statement, Meddings said: “When we commissioned Slaughter and May to carry out this review, we specifically asked for a fully independent and thorough inquiry.

“Although the report doesn’t paint the full picture of migration, the Board were absolutely clear that we wanted to be transparent and learn fully from those aspects which went wrong. That is why we have taken the decision to publish this report in full.”

The IT crash led to the nearly two million customers locked out of their accounts for weeks and eventually resulted in the resignation of then TSB CEO Paul Pester.

Pester was replaced by Debbie Crosbie, who took the responsibility in May this year.

The shutdown also damaged TSB’s reputation and led to losses in subsequent results.

Currently, the bank faces an inquiry by British financial regulators that may lead to further penalties, if found guilty.

Earlier this year, TSB launched Fraud Refund Guarantee solution in a bid to regain customer confidence. The scheme covers all transactional fraud losses.