Summary
The head of HSBC UK, Ian Stuart, has expressed concern over the increasing threat of cyber attacks on banks. HSBC and other major banks are investing significant amounts of money to strengthen their IT systems due to the constant and growing number of cyber threats.
Key Facts
- Ian Stuart, CEO of HSBC UK, stated that cyber attacks are a major worry and occur frequently.
- HSBC is spending hundreds of millions of pounds to improve IT security.
- In the last two years, major UK banks and societies had 803 hours of tech outages.
- Recent cyber attacks affected retailers like Co-op and Marks and Spencer.
- Cyber security expert Lisa Forte noted that cyber attack frequency and severity are increasing.
- Banks process numerous transactions and updates; HSBC manages 1000 payments per second.
- Other banks like Barclays, Lloyds, and NatWest have also experienced IT failures.
- The Barclays outage in January led to customer disruptions and potential compensation payouts.
