One of the UK’s oldest independent banks, Raphael has been fined £1.9m over failures over their outsourcing controls, which left thousands of their customers unable to make payments on Christmas Eve.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said in a joint statement they had issued the bank combined fines of £1.89m.
Regulators said the bank failed to have adequate processes in assessing the business continuity arrangements of their outsourced providers, leading to a complete failure of processing services at one of the banks card processors on Christmas Eve 2015.
Seasonal workers were amongst those impacted and unable to depend on their cards for there wages. This failure left 3,367 customers unable to use their cards and there was, 5,356 affected attempted transactions.
Mark Steward, FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight said, “Raphaels’ systems and controls supporting the oversight and governance of its outsourcing arrangements were inadequate and exposed customers to unnecessary and avoidable harm and inconvenience.
“There is no lower standard for outsourced systems and controls and firms are accountable for failures by outsourcing providers.”
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