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Credit Mutuel Arkea says hackers carried out fraudulent transfers worth around 100 million euros from the bank’s accounts before converting the stolen funds into cryptocurrency. The lender insists customer accounts were not affected and efforts are underway to recover the money.
French regional lender Credit Mutuel Arkea has disclosed that it suffered a sophisticated cyberattack in which hackers carried out fraudulent transactions worth around 100 million euros ($112 million).
The bank said on Wednesday that the attack had been contained and that the hackers gained access to Arkea’s accounts to transfer funds to other banks. However, it stressed that customer accounts were not targeted and clients had suffered no financial losses.
According to the lender, the stolen money was subsequently converted into cryptocurrencies through specialised platforms. While a portion of the funds has been blocked, efforts are underway to recover the remaining amount.
Arkea ruled out human error as the cause of the fraudulent transactions, describing the incident as a “sophisticated attack coming from the outside”.
The bank did not disclose how the hackers breached its systems or identify those responsible for the attack.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the incident, AFP reported.
In a statement to the news agency, the prosecutor’s office said the probe concerns an “attack on an automated data processing system by an organised group”.
More from BusinessThe bank declined to confirm a figure of $133 million in losses reported by French newspaper Le Telegramme, but acknowledged the scale of the financial damage.
Arkea said the amount involved was still being assessed but maintained that the incident would not undermine the group’s financial health or stability.
The lender reported a net profit of 230 million euros in the first half of the year.
The cyberattack was first brought to light by ZachXBT, an independent blockchain investigator known for tracking cryptocurrency transactions.
The anonymous investigator said the stolen funds had been moved through multiple accounts opened on cryptocurrency exchange platforms.
The use of cryptocurrency to move the stolen money has added another dimension to the investigation, as authorities and blockchain investigators attempt to trace the transactions and recover the funds.
