ANKARA
International bank HSBC said on Wednesday that it had not detected any “suspicious transactions” after its operations in Turkey were hacked last month.
Speaking during a meeting with reporters in Istanbul on Wednesday, James Emmett, chief executive officer of HSBC’s Turkey operation, said that the bank suffered a data loss "which has affected our 2.7 million customers" but added that no fraud or suspicious transactions had since been detected.
On Nov. 12, HSBC said that its operations in Turkey were hacked and that customers' credit card details had been stolen. The compromised information consisted of card numbers and linked account numbers, card expiry dates and card-holder names, the bank said.
There is no evidence that any of its customers’ other financial information or personal information was compromised.
HSBC said it identified the attack through its internal controls.
Emmett said that although the bank faced some costs “there are no financial damages to date.”
“The bank did not see a large numbers change in its customer base after the attack,” he added.
“On identifying the incident, we took immediate action to safeguard our customers. We launched an investigation that is ongoing in cooperation with the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency of Turkey, and other relevant authorities. All card operations of HSBC Turkey are now functioning normally.”
Answering a reporter’s question regarding suggestions that HSBC could quit private banking in Turkey, Emmett said that HSBC would continue to invest in direct banking in this country.”
"Throughout our 150-year history we have been where the growth is, connecting customers to opportunities,” Emmett underlined.
“In this respect Turkey is among our 21 priority markets to invest owing to its fundamentals such as young and growing population, low household and public sector debt, a corporate sector that is resilient to shocks, strong banks and fiscal discipline, diversified industrial base and increasingly diversified international trade and investment portfolio as well as entrepreneurial spirit of the people."
"Over the medium to long-term, we believe Turkey will continue to make economic progress and offer attractive opportunities to investors,” he added.
The bank stated that its customers may continue to perform all banking transactions as usual.
HSBC has nearly 3 million customers in Turkey spread across 311 branches and employs over 5,600 staff in the country.
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