Banking giant Lloyds has revealed that 80,000 more customers than previously thought may have been affected by a major tech glitch last month and could now be in line for goodwill payments.
The banking group, which also owns Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has paid out more than £200,000 after around 450,000 people were impacted by the IT glitch that allowed customers to see other users’ transactions on their accounts.
Lloyds said the additional customers affected were joint account holders with some of 446,915 Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers who saw other people’s transactions or had their data shared with others due to IT issues on 12 March.
The banking group said in a follow-up letter to the Treasury Committee that while these 80,508 joint account holders did not log in to the banking app during the incident, they may have had details of their transactions viewed.
Jasjyot Singh, CEO of consumer relationships at Lloyds, said: “We also issued an alert on the app home screen to these 80,508 joint account holders, with a small number of exceptions based on particular customer circumstances.
“In notifying these customers, our focus has been on providing reassurance and support.”
The bank said it has now paid out £201,000 to 5,250 people, and a further £62,000 in ‘goodwill’ payouts to another 1,625 people, since 24 March.
This averages around £38 per customer, but it is understood that there is no fixed sum being offered to those affected. Instead, the bank said payments are being offered on a case-by-case basis under its existing "distress and inconvenience" policy.
Lloyds stressed to the committee that it had not seen an increase in daily levels of fraud against those impacted since the tech blunder on 12 March.
The group highlighted that the personal data of individuals who were not Lloyds group customers had also been visible, but that it had not received any complaints relating to customers of other banks.
It also added that it had not yet found any customers who have suffered financial loss as a result of the incident and so “have not made compensation payments on this basis”.
Mr Singh added: “Separately, it is our existing practice that we may make goodwill payments for distress and inconvenience in individual cases, for example, where there has been a direct impact on an individual.”
Lloyds said last month the incident was caused by a “software defect” from an overnight IT update.
Finance experts have advised anyone affected to contact their bank to explain and provide evidence, which may speed up their payout. Those not happy with their offer can take their case to the Financial Ombudsman Service for review.
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