Bank to check eBay computer data

The computer was sold on eBay

The Ulster Bank is investigating whether any of its customers' details were on a computer sold on eBay.

The computer contained information on a million customers of NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and American Express.

Ulster Bank is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland. The computer, which had belonged to a financial data company, was sold for £35.

RBS said an archiving firm told it the computer had been "inappropriately sold on via a third party".

It said historical information relating to credit card applications for its bank and others had been on the machine's hard drive.

The information is said to include account details and in some cases customers' signatures, mobile phone numbers and mothers' maiden names.

The problem came to light when IT manager Andrew Chapman, 56, from Oxford, bought the computer, noticed the data and raised the alarm.