A Chicago bank says that a computer tape containing confidential information on its 2 million mortgage holders vanished in transit to a credit bureau.
None of the information on the tape appears to have been misused, bank executives told the Chicago Tribune. The tape included names, Social Security numbers and mortgage payment histories.
ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc., a LaSalle Bank Corp. division, said that the tape was shipped Nov. 18 by the courier service DHL to Experian, a credit bureau in Allen, Texas. When the bank called to confirm the tape's safe arrival, employees learned it was missing.
Efforts to locate or trace the tape have proved fruitless.
Thomas Goldstein, ABN's CEO, said the loss occurred only a month before the group planned to switch to transmitting credit data electronically.
"As you can imagine, I personally am just sick that we missed this thing by one month," Goldstein said.
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