Mubasher: HSBC admitted that a serious data breach has hit the lender’s US retail business during the period between 4 and 14 October.

Fraudsters may have had an access to customers’ account details, statement histories, and other personal information, the bank said in a statement.

The British lender believes that fewer than 1% of its US customers were affected by the hacking, adding that it has “notified those customers whose accounts may have experienced unauthorised access, and are offering them one year of credit monitoring and identify theft protection service.”

“HSBC regrets this incident, and we take our responsibility for protecting our customers very seriously,” the statement added.

The bank stressed that it is not clear whether the perpetrators have tried to make use of the data to steal savings.

In 2014, JPMorgan, one of HSBC’s US banking rivals, was hit by a big breach, which exposed the names, addresses, telephone numbers and emails of almost two-thirds of US households.

Meanwhile, a hack at credit reporting agency Equifax last year affected around 143m consumers.