Bank of Ireland fined 1.7 million euros for cyber-fraud, misleading regulator

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's Central Bank fined the country's largest lender, Bank of Ireland, 1.7 million euros (1.5 million pounds) on Tuesday for regulatory breaches that caused loss to a client at its private banking arm and also for misleading the regulator.

The probe arose from a cyber-fraud incident in 2014 where, acting on instructions from a fraudster impersonating a client, Bank of Ireland Private Banking made two payments to a third party account totalling 106,430 euros, the central bank said.

While the client was immediately reimbursed, the fraud was only reported to police at the request of the central bank over a year later.

Bank of Ireland accepted the fine and said in a statement that it had strengthened controls, including fully integrating the private banking subsidy into the full group.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Gareth Jones)