Blundering banks need to invest more in IT - MP

Banks should have a board member dedicated to IT security, MP urges

An MP has said investing in IT should be a higher priority for banks as regular tech glitches cause chaos for businesses and consumers.

In a letter sent to the Treasury Committee, which was seen by Reuters, Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester, said more needs to be done to stop these blunders - starting with better investment in tech and security.

High street banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), NatWest and HSBC have all suffered IT glitches in recent months and years. A two-week outage at the former bank saw it rack up a £125m charge.

Tyrie said such "blunders and weaknesses" are not good enough and that banks ought to pour more money and resources into IT.

He said a group focused on assessing the risks to the whole banking system needs to be formed.

"Currently, no one group seems to be directly responsible for developing a full understanding of the risks carried," Tyrie said in the letter seen by Reuters.

"A group of this type should now be formed with the primary task of ensuring that the banks develop more robust resilience to protect banking and payment systems."

According to recent IDC data, the global financial services industry spent $455bn on IT in 2015. The analyst added that more than a quarter of budgets in the market go on mobility and cloud tech.