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French banking group Crédit Mutuel Arkea reported that about EUR 100 million (USD 112.61 million) is missing after a cyberattack on the lender on Wednesday. The bank said it is still assessing the financial impact and cannot yet determine how much of the missing money it can recover.
The attack is among the rare successful cyberattacks targeting a major financial institution. It comes a week after cryptocurrency exchange Binance suffered a USD 6.3 billion theft.
According to the bank, attackers used an account belonging to Crédit Mutuel Arkea to carry out fraudulent transactions to other banks. The transfers may have allowed the perpetrators to convert the funds into cryptocurrency through specialized platforms.
The bank clarified that customer accounts were not involved in the attack and that customers’ assets remained unaffected. However, the bank temporarily suspended some transactions as a precaution, causing delays in certain transfers.
A spokesperson also rejected media reports suggesting that Fortuneo, the bank’s online banking subsidiary, was the entry point for the attack. The spokesperson said neither Fortuneo nor its customers’ accounts were involved.
The bank declined to identify the third-party service provider whose platform the attackers used. It said the European Central Bank, French banking supervisors and prosecutors had been informed about the incident.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that its cybercrime unit received a complaint from Crédit Mutuel Arkea on Wednesday and immediately opened an investigation into an organized attack on an automated data processing system.
The bank has not disclosed how much of the missing money has been recovered so far. Investigators are examining the circumstances surrounding the attack and the movement of funds.
The incident comes amid growing concerns among financial regulators worldwide over cybersecurity risks, particularly as artificial intelligence expands the threat landscape.
Also Read: Cyberattack Hits French Bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, Fraudulent Transfers Reported
Based in Brittany, Crédit Mutuel Arkea is a French mutual banking group with more than 5.8 million customers and EUR 211.5 billion in assets.
The cyberattack highlights the growing vulnerability of financial institutions to sophisticated digital threats, even as banks strengthen their security systems and introduce additional safeguards to protect customer funds.