Lloyds Bank Of Scotland Fined £75k Over Faxing Blunders

LLoyds Banking Group’s Bank of Scotland division has been fined £75,000 for repeatedly faxing customers’ information to the wrong people.

Payslips, bank statements and account details, along with customers’ names, addresses and contact details were wrongly divulged to a third party organisation and a member of the public on numerous occasions over a three-year period, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today.

At least 21 documents were sent to those two parties, both of whom had fax numbers one digit different from the intended recipient, a department within the bank.

‘Unforgivable’ Lloyds mistakes

“To send a person’s financial records to the wrong fax number once is careless. To do so continually over a three year period, despite being aware of the problem, is unforgivable and in clear breach of the Data Protection Act,” said Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO.

“Let us not forget that this information would have been all a criminal would ever need to carry out identity fraud. Today’s penalty reflects the seriousness of this case.”

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson said: “The security of our customers’ data is always our key priority. We apologise that, due to human error, a very small number of documents relating to 32 customers were unfortunately misdirected. This occurred over a period in which several million customer documents, using the same process, were correctly received.

“No customer suffered any harm or detriment as a result of this error. We are continually reviewing our processes to ensure our customers’ information remains safe”.

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