Tesco Bank refunds £2.5m but insists data is safe

tesco-bank-2Tesco Bank has refunded £2.5m to customers whose current accounts were pilfered by online criminals at the weekend, although it has claimed only 9,000 – not 20,000 – were affected by the fraud.
The bank has also confirmed that no personal data was compromised as a result of attack, and that normal service has now resumed following the suspension of online transactions.
It is continuing to work closely with the authorities and regulators in their criminal investigation of the incident, which the head of the Financial Conduct Authority Andrew Bailey has described as “unprecendent” in the UK banking sector.
Speaking to MPs on the Commons Treasury Committee, Bailey admitted the issue raised serious concerns about the entire banking system. “The heart of concern is what is the root cause of this [Tesco attack] and what it tells us about the broader threats,” he said.
Tesco Bank chief executive Benny Higgins commented: “Our first priority throughout this incident has been protecting and looking after our customers and we’d again like to apologise for the worry and inconvenience this issue has caused.
“We’ve now refunded all customer accounts affected by fraud and lifted the suspension of online debit transactions so that customers can use their accounts as normal. We’d also like to reassure our customers that none of their personal data has been compromised.”
Tesco Bank has 7.8 million customer accounts across the UK, with 136,000 customers holding current accounts.

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