CEO of UK's TSB bank drafts in IBM to fix online banking problems

LONDON (Reuters) - Paul Pester, chief executive of British bank TSB whose customers have been hit by severe problems using online banking services, said he would take control of the bank's IT platform on Thursday and bring in IBM experts to fix the problems.

The online problems, now in their sixth day, follow a planned migration over the weekend of TSB's computer systems from the platform of its former owner Lloyds Banking Group to a newly built platform developed by its parent bank, Spain's Sabadell.

"I will take direct control from 8 o'clock (0700 GMT) this morning for our platform, I've drafted in a team of global experts from IBM," Pester said during an interview on BBC Radio 4.

"They are reporting to me, directly to me and I will take control of the platform until it gets fixed. I am putting things right."

Pester also said the bank's customers would not be charged any overdraft fees for the month of April.

"I'm very aware that many customers may have used their overdraft in April more than they would have expected to. There will be no overdraft fees or any overdraft charges for any of our customers through April," he said.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Kate Holton)