Mizuho Banks Loses Data on 270,000 Customers

Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Trust & Banking Co. are reporting that they have lost data on 270,000 customers. They said the information was probably discarded by mistake.

Mizuho Bank said the lost data include depositors' names, account numbers and savings balances. The data were stored on microfilm, card loan application forms from about 980 people and other data-recording media at 167 of the bank's outlets nationwide.

The banks said they have not detected any sign that a third party has the information.

A Mizuho Bank official said: "Our in-house investigation has found that the possibility is extremely low that the information in question has been illicitly taken outside of the bank. We are sorry for the incident, and we will take thorough measures to protect information in order to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents."