Fujitsu Admits Moral Obligation - #PostOfficeScandal

Break: The chief executive of Fujitsu has apologised to postmasters and said the firm has a moral obligation to contribute to the £1billion compensation bill.

Follow live on @thetimes live blog on #PostOfficeScandal and in 🧵👇https://t.co/PwNUXRZ616

— Tom Witherow (@TomWitherow) January 16, 2024

The bill for compensation currently stands at £1BN, how much Fujitsu thinks it will contribute towards this remains to be seen.

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When IT Goes Bad - Post Office Scandal

Subpostmasters have their names cleared at High Court after incredible and awful Horizon IT scandal... https://t.co/HhhSg5ZiVq

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) April 23, 2021

Computers are fallible!

Tax Investigation Insurance

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Royal Mail To Be Sold/Privatised

Unsurprisingly the government, in the form of Vince Cable no less, has announced that the Royal Mail will be sold/privatised.

Also unsurprisingly, the unions representing post office workers have reacted with "irritation" to the announcement.

I recommend that you post your Christmas cards now, if you want them to arrive in time for the festive season!

Postman Prat

It seems likely that there will be a post strike on or after 22 October.

Whether or not one occurs, the damage to Royal Mail's brand and the long term job prospects of those who claim to be striking for an "improved" postal service has already been done.

Royal Mail customers are already seeking alternatives to the increasingly erratic service, and will never return to the Royal Mail.

Mail volumes are already falling at around 10% a year.

Business Post says it anticipates a 10% rise, while Parcel2Go says a strike will lead to a 20% increase in turnover.

The strikers will soon be looking for alternative employment. They have not seemingly understood the precariousness of their situation.

Post Office To Offer Mortgages

The Post Office is launching a new mortgages product in the North of England. Despite denying it, the timing and area of the product launch coincides nicely (for the Post Office) with the Northern Rock debacle.

The three new products, offered in conjunction with Bristol & West, include a fixed-rate mortgage and a buy-to-let deal; they will be promoted in 100 Post Offices across the region.

If the trial run is successful, the mortgages will be rolled out in the Post Office's 1,600 branches across the rest of the country at the beginning of next year.

The Post Office mortgages consist of a three-year fixed rate at 6.09%, a three-year variable-rate at 0.8% below the Post Office's standard variable rate, currently charging 6.44%, and a buy to-let loan, fixed at 6.35% for three years.

These rates are not the best on the market, and potential borrowers would be well advised to shop around.

Whilst the Post Office dabbles in activities not normally associated with its core brand, it faces rather serious issues in its mainstream business.

The announcement that it will close 180 post offices has not gone down well, and the postal strike that will last this week and part of next week will not help secure its future. Customers will inevitably seek other, more reliable, service providers.

Savings Fall

Research carried out by the Post Office shows that British people are now saving less than they ever did in the last 50 years.

A staggering 25% of people fail to save any money whatsoever; those that do bother to save are doing so for indulgences, such as holidays.

Given the dismal reputation of the financial services industry (arising from eg the endowment scandal, the pensions scandal, excessive interest charges for credit, excessive bank charges, mis-selling of insurance policies etc) it is hardly surprising that people cannot be bothered to save. They simply do not believe that the money will be there for them when they need it.

The financial services industry will need to get its house in order and rebuild its shattered reputation, if it wants people to ever trust it again.

Post Office Blackmail

The Post Office provides a very fine example of how not to run a business.

With its reputation already in tatters over lost/stolen mail, branch closures and the ongoing threat of strike action, it decided to drive another nail into its coffin by publicly threatening its own postmasters.

The Post Office threatened postmasters with financial penalties for failing to give official explanations for branch closures.

A letter was sent by the Post Office to postmasters, warning them that undercover officials (spies) would visit post offices to ensure that "key messages" about closures were given.

A spokesman for the Post Office said the letter had been wrongly sent out.

Quite so!

The fact that the spokesman chose not to elucidate was that the letter should never have been written in the first place.

The Post Office is not worried about threatening their own postmasters, but worried that the threats were made public.

A fine way to run a business!

The Last Post

It would seem that the post office workers are determined to drive the final nail into the coffin of Royal Mail, the Times reports that they are gearing up for a series of strikes.

Royal Mail has suffered two national walkouts in the clash over pay and modernisation, and more strike dates are likely to be set tomorrow. The CWU could escalate the action beyond the one-day walkouts that it has called so far, or it may stage a series of regional strikes.

Given that Royal Mail suffers from a lousy reputation re lost letters, outdated working practices, fuddy duddy post offices and stiff competition from the "wired world"/professional delivery companies this strike action is the last thing that it needs.

The customers will simply vote with their feet and walk.

Banks' Behaviour Unacceptable

The Information Commissioner has publicly accused banks, that have left customer details in the street, of an 'unacceptable' breach of the Data Protection Act.

It seems that the ever popular banks, who provide their customers with such "value for money", have been leaving customer account details in waste bins, skips and bin bags outside 11 branches across the country.

Needless to say this exposes the hapless customer to identity theft and fraud.

Deputy Information Commissioner David Smith said:

"It is unacceptable for banks and other organisations to carelessly discard their customers.

It is vital that banks and other organisations take security seriously. If they do not, they not only risk further action from the Information Commissioner but also risk losing the trust of their customers.

Individuals must feel confident that banks and other organisations are safeguarding their personal information."

The 11 financial institutions that have been named and shamed are:

-Halifax-Bank of Scotland
-Barclays
-Alliance & Leicester
-Royal Bank of Scotland
-NatWest
-Nationwide Building Society
-Co-operative Bank
-HFC Bank
-Clydesdale Bank
-Scarborough Building Society
-United National Bank

Also on the list were the Post Office and the Immigration Advisory Service.

The information publicly discarded by the banks included; names, addresses and bank account numbers.

Nigel Evans MP, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud, demanded heavy fines for the organisations involved.

Quote:

"It is absolutely unforgivable that these financial institutions have acted so irresponsibly.

They seem to have ignored warnings about the need to keep customer details secure. Quite frankly, I am amazed that this is still going on. It is well known that criminals actively target bins in search of this sort of detail. This behaviour shows a cavalier disregard towards the protection of customers."

The Information Commissioner's Office has asked the banks and other organisations to sign a formal undertaking to abide by the Data Protection Act in future. If they fail to do so, they would face action leading to prosecution and fines.

The British Bankers' Association said:

"Banks take their responsibilities for protecting customers' personal information very seriously and each bank has secure arrangements for disposing of confidential customer information.

The banks concerned have fully investigated the circumstances and taken appropriate steps to ensure that any weak links in their security practices have been addressed."

The statement by the Bankers' Association is of course contradictory, what is the point of having secure arrangements if they are not followed?

Pretty pathetic really, it hardly leads one to conclude that the high fees that banks charge for their "services" are justified.

Banks Throw Customer Details Onto The Street

Despite the fact that banks are forever lecturing their customers about personal security, and the risk of id theft, it seems that when it comes to practicing what they preach they are found to be wanting.

It has been revealed that high street banks are dumping details of their customers' accounts on the street.

Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, says that he has received "highly disturbing" evidence that personal information, including bank statements and loan applications, are being left in bin bags on streets throughout the UK.

Needless to say, this exposes the banks' customers to a severe risk of id theft and fraud. Thomas is considering taking enforcement action against those financial institutions that are failing to apply adequate security over customer details. They could face unlimited fines.

His office is investigating; the Post Office, HSBC, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Thomas is quoted in an interview saying:

"There have been cases now which have quite strong prima facie evidence which we are urgently investigating, of banks' rubbish bags found on the public highway outside banks.

And I have seen some of these where, open up the rubbish bag and there you find bank statements".

Cases being examined by his office include an application for a current account (which had the individual's name, address, date of birth, telephone number, previous address, current account number, mother's maiden names and place of birth) which was found in the rubbish.

Detective Chief Inspector Derek Robertson has warned that criminal gangs have infiltrated about 10% of Glasgow's financial call centres, stealing customers' identities and robbing them of thousands of pounds.

Another nail in the coffin of the already tarnished reputation of Britain's financial services industry.

To read the full interview with Richard Thomas, visit The Thomas Interview.