Two Canadian banks warned customers on Monday morning that the personal and financial information of at least 40,000 clients was accessed by criminals.
The affected banks are Simplii Financial—a recently-created brand owned by banking giant CIBC, and which formerly operated as President’s Choice Financial, a grocery store brand—and the Bank of Montreal (BMO). Simplii Financial reportedly has over two million customers, and BMO has more than 12 million clients across its services.
In a statement, Simplii Financial said that the bank is alerting affected customers after it received a tip on Sunday that “fraudsters” may have “electronically accessed” personal and account information for around 40,000 clients. The Bank of Montreal said in a statement that the “fraudsters” themselves contacted the bank on Sunday to let them know they “were in possession of certain personal and financial information for a limited number of customers.”
“Immediately after learning of the issue we implemented enhanced fraud monitoring and online banking security measures,” Olga Petrycki, a CIBC spokesperson, told me over the phone. “We have shared the information with federal agencies,” Petrycki continued.
Spokespeople for BMO were not immediately available for comment. In a statement, the bank said it is proactively reaching out to affected customers and is working with authorities.