Stars’ bank details put on show

Security concerns are growing as more banks offer services over the Internet Keystone

Details of Swiss bank accounts belonging to famous people were accidentally made public on the Internet for a week, Credit Suisse has admitted.

Some famous account holders at Switzerland’s second largest bank had their account numbers, addresses and details of money transfers splashed across a publicly accessible website.

Among those affected were the British actor, Roger Moore, the German pop star, Udo Jürgens, and the Swiss entertainer, DJ Bobo.

The bank said the problem had been caused by a computer glitch, and that it had shut down a test website where the information had appeared.

“Credit Suisse has not published any customer data on the Internet. An external company did, however, enter information in the area of the Credit Suisse website accessible to the public whilst affecting a payment order.

“At no time was customer information originating from Credit Suisse available on the Internet,” a statement from the bank said.

The Swiss tabloid newspaper “Blick”, which broke the story, quoted Udo Jürgens as saying: “This is a first class scandal. How can I feel secure at such an institution?”

Blick said the problem occurred when a Swiss agency which coordinates royalty payments sent confidential data to Credit Suisse as part of a test of its transfer system.

swissinfo with agencies