By Elizabeth Howcroft and Mateusz Rabiega
PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) – France’s Credit Mutuel Arkea said on Wednesday it was trying to recover funds stolen in “fraudulent transactions” by cyber attackers and told its customers that their money was safe.
The cooperative bank said that the losses were lower than the $133 million reported by crypto news outlet CoinDesk, adding that the amount of money affected was “not of a nature to undermine the Group’s financial strength and soundness”.
“Our teams are continuing their work to precisely assess the financial consequences of this attack. It is still too early to give a final figure,” a bank spokesperson said.
The attack follows last week’s theft of $6.3 billion of cryptocurrency from the Binance exchange and a wave of cyberattacks targeting internet-connected fridges in Europe.
Three regional blood banks in France were also hit in an overnight cyberattack between Sunday and Monday, in which refrigerators holding blood products were targeted.
Credit Mutuel Arkea declined to comment on whether the funds were in the form of cryptocurrency, as reported by CoinDesk.
Brittany-based Credit Mutuel Arkea, which is part of the larger Credit Mutuel group, did not respond to questions about how or when the cyberattack unfolded, or if any data was stolen.
“This incident has had no impact on (customer) assets and has only caused a delay in the execution of certain transfers,” it said on its website, adding that the attack had been contained and it had told authorities as soon as it was detected.
While successful hacks of large financial institutions are rare, financial regulators have stepped up warnings about the risk of cyberattacks, particularly with the growth of AI.
Credit Mutuel Arkea has 5.8 million clients and €211.5 billion ($238 billion) in assets, making it a major French financial firm, although it is significantly smaller than the likes of BNP Paribas and Societe Generale.
($1 = 0.8905 euros)
(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft, Mateusz Rabiega and Inti Landauro; Editing by Louise Heavens, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Alexander Smith)
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