CBA’s announcement made by a senior bank executive puts further pressure on Australian banks already reeling from revelations of widespread misconduct in a judicial inquiry.
CBA has also been accused in a federal lawsuit of breaching anti-money laundering protocols more than 50,000 times and has admitted to using outdated medical definitions to refuse sick customers health insurance payouts. A regulator ordered CBA to keep an extra USD 750 million in cash reserves as punishment for the alleged money laundering breaches, which it is contesting.
CBA’s acting head of retail banking services Angus Sullivan said the bank found in May 2016 it had lost two magnetic tapes containing 15 years of data on customer names, addresses and account numbers for 19.8 million accounts. The tapes were due to be disposed of, but CBA could not confirm they were securely destroyed. The tapes did not contain PINs, passwords or other data that could enable account fraud.
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