Sunday, May 25, 2008By Dick O’Brien
Four laptops stolen from Bank of Ireland contained details of accounts held by 1,500 customers at other banks, including AIB, Ulster Bank and National Irish Bank.
However, it took Bank of Ireland up to two and half weeks to notify the other banks that their customers’ details were on the stolen laptops. The Sunday Business Post has established that most of the customers are still not aware their details were on the laptops.
Bank of Ireland said on April 21 that four laptops, containing details of 31,500 customers of Bank of Ireland Life, had been stolen.
However, the bank did not disclose that information on accounts in other institutions was included in the missing data.
A spokesman for Bank of Ireland said it was not unusual for the bank to have details on accounts from other banks, since many customers paid for their investments via direct debit from other accounts.
He said the bank’s priority was to collate the data on the stolen computers and contact customers as soon as it could.
However, he added that it was the customers’ responsibility to contact the bank, verify their identity and ask for the data to be sent to them. To date, only 7 per cent of the 31,500 customers affected have done so.
