A fraudster walked into a branch of Barclays Bank posing as its chairman Marcus Agius and managed to walk out with £10,000.
The conman is believed to have found Mr Agius' details online and persuaded call centre staff into issuing a Barclaycard in his name.
"It was down to human error, procedures were not followed fully and we have learned from it," Barclaycard said.
It added that like any other customer, Mr Agius had been fully refunded.
"All Barclays customers have a 100% fraud guarantee as long as they take reasonable care of their information," a spokesman said.
The bank has now implemented stricter security checks for its senior executives.
Bank chiefs were said to be "burning up" with embarrassment.
"Credit card fraud is an issue which our industry continues to confront," Mr Agius said.
"Barclays is resolved to do everything possible on behalf of our customers to minimise its impact."
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