AIB confirms property deeds of 30 customers destroyed at Cork City branch

Bank said deeds being stored in the bank belonging to about 30 customers were 'inadvertently disposed of' by a third-party contractor during maintenance work at the South Mall branch

The Data Protection Commissioner has been informed of the incident at the South Mall branch. File picture: Getty Images

AIB has confirmed that 30 customers had their property deeds destroyed during maintenance work at a Cork city centre branch.

The Data Protection Commissioner has been informed of the incident at the South Mall branch.

The bank told the Irish Examiner that deeds being stored in the bank belonging to about 30 customers were “inadvertently disposed of” by a third-party contractor during maintenance work at the South Mall branch.

"We have apologised to any impacted customers and are sourcing replacement documents for them free of charge," a spokeswoman for the bank said. 

She said no other documents were destroyed other than the deeds.

She added: “We began communicating with customers on 4 May, having become aware of the issue in the days prior to that.” 

According to AIB, the matter was discovered by the bank, which then notified the office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

A spokeswoman for the Data Protection Commissioner said: “The DPC has received a report of a breach from AIB. The matter is currently under assessment.” 

Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard said the issue had raised a trust issue for people who thought their documents would be safe in their bank.

He said: “Serious questions have to be asked of AIB following this breach of trust with their customers. This is far more than an inconvenience to the 30 impacted customers. 

"It’s not inconceivable that the sale of a house could be lost to a customer over this blunder. You’d think important documents would be safe as houses in the bank. This is a further erosion of trust.”