Tesco Bank confirmed £2.5m was stolen from online bank accounts which were accessed fraudulently over last weekend.

The firm said: “The total cost of refunding these customers is estimated to be £2.5 million.”

It added normal service has resumed following the temporary suspension of online transactions from current accounts.

Tesco Bank said it has 7.8 million customer accounts across the UK. 136,000 customers hold current accounts with the Bank, of these 9,000 were identified as being victims of fraud.

The Bank also said ‘personal data was not compromised as a result of fraud that took place over the weekend of 5-6 November and that online transactions had been suspended to prevent criminal activity.’

Read: 20 key facts about Tesco Bank and its IT systems

Speculation on exactly what type of breach occurred has continued and the back has issued no details of the type of breach but said: “Tesco Bank confirmed it is continuing to work closely with the authorities and regulators in their criminal investigation of this incident.”

Read: Tesco Bank Hack – 6 vital questions that need answers

The bank is working with the National Cyber Security Centre, a division of GCHQ on the investigation.

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Tesco Bank CEO, Benny Higgins, said: “Our first priority throughout this incident has been protecting and looking after our customers and we’d again like to apologise for the worry and inconvenience this issue has caused.”

Tesco Bank CEO Benny Higgins
Tesco Bank CEO Benny Higgins

“We’ve now refunded all customer accounts affected by fraud and lifted the suspension of online debit transactions so that customers can use their accounts as normal.  We’d also like to reassure our customers that none of their personal data has been compromised.”

Tesco Bank has now confirmed around 9,000 customers were affected by these fraudulent transactions and all customers affected were fully reimbursed by the evening of Tuesday 8 November.