St. George apologises for banking error which printed incorrect account statements

St George has apologised for a security error which saw tens of thousands of transaction reports printed on other customers’ statements, saying statement production firm Salmat has taken responsibility for the debacle.

It comes in the middle of National Fraud Week, during which governments and private companies are attempting to showcase efforts used by hackers and thieves to identity private details and identities.

The error, which affects statements with an end date of February 26, saw about 42,000 customers receive documents which contained other users’ transactions and even private banking details.

Chief executive Greg Bartlett said in a statement the bank apologises for the blunder and appropriate action is being taken immediately.

“We sincerely apologise to our customers for this error. This incident is totally unacceptable and we are treating it very seriously. I am overseeing this matter personally and we are committed to contacting each impacted customer,” he said.

“What is most important to me though, is for our customers to be assured that we guarantee they will not incur any loss as a result of this error.”

Bartlett said Salmat had taken responsibility for the error and is “currently completing a full investigation”.

“They have already put in place stringent measures to ensure this incident does not re-occur. St.George will ensure the matter is properly investigated and rectified.”

Bartlett said Salmat, which was founded by entrepreneurs Peter Mattick and Philip Salter, identified a processing error which was the source of the problem and caused a “one-off interruption”.

“They advised that human error occurred when manually re-starting an automated production process and is isolated to that processing run. Salmat have sincerely apologised to St.George for the concern and inconvenience that this incident has caused their customers.”

The lender is currently sending out corrected statements along with an explanation, and has introduced “heightened security measures on any potentially impacted accounts”.